Devon and Casper walked up. Devon said, "We found nothing. I'm going to keep scouting around."
Quinn gave him a curt nod of confirmation and Devon took off. Now it was time to take this cocky woman down a notch. "You should tell us your name and what you were doing out here."
She snorted a laugh. "That's not going to happen. I walked up on that woman being attacked and tried to help her. End of discussion."
Hardly. He asked, "What type of being are you?"
"Wow, you're going all Barbara Walters on me. If you were a vegetable what kind would you be?"
She had powers. She was being evasive and she had a smart mouth. Not a wise combination when outnumbered by nonhumans.
She was also toned as if she worked hard to be in fighting shape. No delicate flower, even if she did have heart-shaped lips and smooth skin.
He grimaced. Not a description he'd share in a mission report.
He gave her one more chance. "Are you registered with VIPER? And before you give me lip, you should know that I'm the Maistir over the North American Beladors. I can take you in and keep you there indefinitely."
Light colored eyes--blue?--locked with his.
Hers narrowed. "Are you always a surly bastard? Really, who killed your dog?"
Evalle glanced at him, her gaze searching his face for a reaction.
Yes, he was a surly bastard, but he hadn't lost a dog. It had been a woman. He stopped short of yelling that at this crazy person--whatever she was. He had more control than that, which he showed by calmly telling her, "You'll need to come with us until we can confirm why you're in Atlanta."
"I'm going to warn you one time to leave me alone," she said in the cool voice of someone who knew she could back up her words.
He suffered a moment of admiration for this woman who stood her ground in spite of being surrounded by preternatural beings. That mental slip irritated him, which caused him to double down on the steel in his voice.
"I'll give you fair warning as well. Threaten anyone here again and you'll regret it. We're investigating Medb murders in this area. You're not going anywhere until I get answers."
That should have put an unholy fear in her.
Not even.
Fury lit her gaze. She took two steps back. "I don't want to hurt any of you, but I'm leaving now. If anyone tries to stop me, I will hurt you."
With that said, she extended her right hand as she patted her left hand around her open collar. Her face registered shock.
Evalle and Quinn reacted just as fast, pushing up a wall of kinetic power to stop her strike.
In the microsecond it took for all of that to happen, Adrianna spit out two words and the stranger doubled over and fell to her knees, then flat out on the ground.
Casper had stood by during all of it, because he had unusual gifts but not like a Belador or Adrianna. He looked at Adrianna. "Damn, that's hot."
She gave him a wry glance and one of her almost smiles.
Isak came striding up and took in everything.
Quinn followed Isak's gaze to where a white glow the size of a tennis ball spun in Adrianna's palm. That was just a tiny example of the mighty Witchlock power.
Evalle asked, "How long will she be out?"
Adrianna's mouth twisted with regret. "I'm not sure. That was something new I've been practicing with Witchlock. I'm relatively sure it won't kill her though."
Evalle said, "I hope not. We need to know what she knows."
Based on what Evalle had told Quinn about Isak and Adrianna having a relationship, Quinn expected Adrianna to fill Isak in, but she ignored him.
Evalle must have noticed. Her gaze ping-ponged between the pair then she told Isak what had happened.
He said, "Wish I'd been here. I could have stunned her instead."
Adrianna argued, "By the time you could have done that, she would have cut you in half with the power from her little finger."
"Never happen," he said in a dismissive tone.
Evalle walked out from between them to pull Quinn aside and whisper, "We have to talk about those men in the energy field. I heard one of them."
"What'd he say?"
"He was trying to get the demon back in place and telling one of the others to grab the Medb."
Quinn thought back. "I didn't hear him say anything."
She started to explain more, but he halted her with his hand when Devon's voice came into Quinn's mind.
I'm over by the bridge. The four men from the energy field are here and nothing is buzzing. We should be able to take them.
You mean Park Drive Bridge? No water flowed beneath the bridge. Only urban art donated by nameless crafters who'd decorated a hangout spot for teens.
That's the one, Devon confirmed.
Adrenaline rushed through Quinn at the chance to get his hands on these men, but his gut warned him something was very off with all of this. That he should pull his people back and keep them safe.
What would Tzader have done in his shoes when Tzader was Maistir?
His friend would have told his gut to shut the hell up and trust the skills of his people. Beladors were powerful beings who backed down from no fight, not even one against an unknown enemy that had outmaneuvered them already.
Yeah, this sucked.
Quinn told Devon, Stay close but don't engage. We're coming after them.
Chapter 7
Quinn wanted everyone moving out immediately, but without alerting the prey. He explained, "Devon found the four men over near the bridge. Evalle and Adrianna pair up. I'll leave Casper to cuff our captive and keep an eye on her."
Evalle nodded. "Isak can put his gun on stun."
"That'll work." Before heading out, Quinn made one thing clear to everyone. "We need one of these men alive for any chance of uncovering who is driving all this."
Everyone nodded and fell in with Quinn, who led the way.
As they neared the thirty-foot-tall underpass covered in graffiti, Evalle and Adrianna split off to the right. They would circle wide, cross the bridge and come in from the opposite side to cut off any escape. Quinn didn't think these men were teleporting, but that buzzing energy field had made them virtually invisible.
Devon spoke through the comm gear, telling Quinn and Isak that two of the men had departed to the east of the area and he was following.
Isak confirmed the message and said he'd join Devon, then the soldier peeled off to Quinn's left.
Quinn eased through the sparse trees near the bridge and paused when he heard low voices arguing. One voice said, "How're we going to explain that we lost both fucking demons?"
"We'll just tell him they went crazy. He's the one who said the demons were dependable. That's his problem."
Quinn salivated at the hope of finding out who they were referencing as him. Had to be the man in control.
"Demons have never been dependable."
"You can tell that to--"
Quinn held his breath for the name. He eased forward until he could see the two men, one in profile, one from behind. He was tempted to dive into one of their heads and yank out the information. But his code of honor would not allow it. That would be like committing mental rape.
The men stopped talking suddenly.
A shout over to the left snatched his attention.
The two men he'd been listening to turned and moved out of view toward the sound. Were Devon and Casper engaged with the enemy? Quinn had taken a step that way when a blast of power caught him by surprise and shoved his body up against a tree.
He was pinned five feet off the ground. He tried shoving his own kinetics back at whatever was holding him, but damn, the power they were using was startling.
Both men walked back into view side-by-side with arms raised.
Quinn struggled to catch his breath against the pressure crushing his chest.
He called up all his kinetic power, shaking as he tried to shove it between their power and his chest. Not happening. He couldn't breathe. In anothe
r thirty seconds, he'd black out and be at their mercy.
He had no choice now but to use mind lock.
Diving into the mind of the man on the right, Quinn came up against a fierce shield that shoved him back. He gritted his teeth and pushed a load of power, forcing his way past the shield.
The attacker on the right dropped his arms and grabbed his head.
His buddy, still pinning Quinn against the tree, shouted, "What are you doing, Sergio? That shit hurts. Kill him before he kills us."
Quinn could breathe again, barely. He continued the pressure on Sergio's head, and Sergio dropped to his knees, but the shield began attacking Quinn's mind, stabbing his head with sharp needles of pain. He clenched his teeth, straining to funnel all his power into one brutal shove to break through, but those shields were like trying to drive a toothpick through steel.
The guy still forcing kinetics at Quinn spewed a string of words in a language Quinn had never heard.
Sergio rocked back and forth, clawing at his head.
Pressure on Quinn's chest was no longer gaining power, but neither was it letting up completely.
Evalle ran up, using her kinetic power to knock aside the guy still standing. That broke Quinn free. He dropped to his feet, but he was still connected to Sergio's head. Quinn had sensed something that he refused to believe.
Adrianna shouted, "What are you doing, Quinn? Your nose is bleeding."
Evalle yanked on Quinn's shoulder. "Get out of his head, Quinn!"
Quinn saw the fire erupt in the man's mind a second before he broke the connection and pulled out. He slumped to the ground, wheezing for air. His head would feel better if he'd shoved it into a blender on high speed.
Sergio howled, beating his fists against his head and whimpering, "You lied. You lied. You ... "
His mouth frothed, then his eyes rolled up. His head burst into flames. In seconds, the fire engulfed his body.
The other guy had fallen six feet away from him, but his body erupted in flames, too.
Quinn made the mental jump as to why, but he didn't want to accept it.
Rain falling in a steady downpour did nothing to slow the fires or stop the bodies from turning into a thick layer of black ashes in less than a minute.
Adrianna asked, "What happened?"
"It was them or me," Quinn explained, wiping his nose on his wet shirt. He wasn't sure if that explanation was for anyone but himself. "I used my mind lock on ... them ... trying to break their kinetic hold on me. I couldn't get through their shields. The best I can guess, the attempted breach of their mental shields set off an involuntary suicidal reaction."
Evalle watched him, but she didn't call him out by asking how he'd been in both minds. He'd never entered two minds at one time and frankly doubted he could, but he was not admitting what he'd just discovered.
Not yet.
Adrianna mused, "That's an incredible spell, if it has the power to destroy them if their minds are breached. Do you want to hunt down the other two or start on cleanup?"
"Let's clean this up. Devon and Isak went after the other two, but I'll call them back in."
Quinn spoke softly into his comm unit, telling the men they needed to fall back and regroup. He directed them to join Casper who was guarding their only witness from tonight. Devon confirmed.
Adrianna lifted her hands over the first blackened spot. "Do you have any use for the ashes?"
"I know you don't do necromancy and I would not ask that of you, but do you have any contacts who could simply give us a read of what type of beings these men were?"
"No one I'm speaking to."
"Understood, and I would never ask that of you, either."
"Thank you." Adrianna spoke over each body. As she did, the black ash swirled then vanished into the air.
On the way back to where Casper stood watch over the unknown woman, Evalle slowed her steps.
Quinn figured out what she was doing and pulled back to give them room to speak privately.
Evalle kept her voice down. "We didn't finish talking. I don't think you got what I was saying. When I was close to the energy field the first time, I heard a guy talking telepathically to the others."
Quinn hadn't understood before, but he did now. He nodded, allowing her to keep talking.
She sounded as if she was trying to convince herself when she said, "I shouldn't have been able to hear someone who was not Belador, and I shouldn't have been able to hear a conversation not directed at me. But ... I don't know. Maybe that buzzing energy caused it, but then those two shoved me up in the air. Right before they did, one of them shouted to link." A sick look climbed over her face. "Quinn, they can't be ... I just don't believe it, but ..." She couldn't finish what had to be an impossible thought for her.
But Quinn had seen something in Sergio's mind that shook him more than all that had happened. He'd recognized the power as the kind he'd seen his whole life.
Add that to the kinetic strikes, Evalle hearing the telepathy, plus the men linking their powers, and it all added up. Telepathy had to be what Devon had also meant when he recounted hearing the men.
He admitted, "Those two I fought were linked as well."
She walked along, silent, no doubt considering the ramifications of what they'd discovered. She admitted, "I didn't think you'd ever mind locked with two people."
Quinn swallowed hard, unable to fathom any other explanation. Those men working with a demon were Beladors.
He felt physically ill. Sure, he'd considered the possibility, but for one vigilante hunting justice, not a team and not someone who would turn his power on another Belador.
This had nothing to do with justice.
It was cold-blooded killing. Murderers.
Evalle went back to sorting out her thoughts, reaching the same conclusion. "This isn't a vigilante. For a group killing like this, someone has to be behind it."
"I had the same thought." Quinn said, "We have to figure out who created that energy field."
Evalle covered her face. "What if ..." She lowered her hand, exposing the disappointment that powered her words. "What if Macha is doing this to show the Beladors they're making a mistake by following Daegan?"
"That's possible, but--"
"It isn't Macha's style," Evalle argued against her own point. "I'd expect a goddess with her power to vaporize hundreds at one time and make a statement."
"Maybe in the past, but she needs followers. If she can convince enough Beladors to follow her before they align with Daegan, then we're looking at--"
"War. Daegan said a war was coming, but I never dreamed it would be Belador against Belador. Is this the start of it?"
"I hope not." Quinn had an even bigger problem now. How could he take Kizira's body and run if the Beladors were facing a war? He'd planned to wrap up this investigation, then find Tzader to inform him and Evalle at the same time that he had to disappear forever with Kizira to protect the identity of his child. Quinn had stayed as Maistir as long as possible, but he'd put the Beladors at greater risk if he hid the body and stuck around.
He'd put Phoedra at risk if he didn't get her mother's body safely hidden.
That left him with only one option. He'd get Tzader to convince Daegan to declare Quinn an enemy of the Beladors once Quinn left.
He still had a little time left. He would not give up hope of finding a way to protect everyone he cared for, but he'd prepare Tzader, Evalle and Daegan before he made a final move.
When he reached Casper and the unconscious woman again, Quinn asked, "Has she stirred?"
"Nope."
Evalle looked around as Isak approached. "Where's Devon?"
"Those two guys we followed were just walking along and all of a sudden they took off, like with your kind of speed."
Evalle met Quinn's gaze with a hopeless look, but didn't comment, which allowed Isak to finish explaining. "Devon said he'd meet us back here, then he left so fast I couldn't tell you which way he went after the first ten feet
."
Quinn said, "Devon won't engage without contacting me."
"Right," Evalle agreed then returned her attention to the unconscious woman. "We don't have any prisoners and she showed up out of nowhere. I say we hold onto her until we have a chance to interrogate her."
"Agreed," Isak and Quinn said at the same time.
Adrianna lifted an eyebrow at them. "Where do we take her?"
Isak offered, "We can take her to my interrogation room."
"No." Quinn caught himself. An image of waterboarding came to mind. He wouldn't treat her like a criminal. Yet. But he definitely wanted answers, and quick. Who was she? What was she? That power was unlike anything he'd seen before.
Was her presence tonight coincidental?
Not in his world.
She'd been here for a reason and she was going nowhere until he flushed it out.
Since Evalle trusted Isak and there was no time to segregate this group, Quinn made one thing clear. "I want this contained as a Belador issue. That means we need to keep it from VIPER."
Evalle was quick to agree. "Absolutely. I have no doubt that Daegan will deal with the guilty."
"Who's Daegan?" Isak asked. He asked the witch, "Do you know?"
Adrianna drew a dainty breath and said, "Yes, but it is not my information to share."
"What the hell, Adrianna?"
She rounded on him. "Don't give me attitude when I have no idea how you'll handle information on nonhumans. My knowledge of Daegan came from a classified mission. You do know what that means, right?"
Quinn looked to Evalle, who had a put-upon look. She said, "Isak?"
He whipped his head at her. "What?"
"Daegan now rules the Beladors, but he has not made any formal announcement or met with VIPER. We're trying to give him time to get situated. He spent the last two thousand years locked up in Taur Medb, cursed into the shape of a dragon throne. Once we learned he was there, several of us launched an unauthorized rescue mission and now he's our leader. I'm telling you because I trust you not to share this with anyone, not even your teams, until Daegan makes his plans known within the nonhuman community."
"Nice to know someone trusts me."
Adrianna sniffed at his comment, trying to look annoyed, but Quinn thought he saw hurt before she covered it with her usual in-control mask.
Casper said, "I only know about it because Quinn asked me to join you tonight and he explained this was an off-the-books mission. But I get it. If VIPER gets involved, the Beladors will be suspected of every infraction against the Medb."