I slipped over behind Adam who had been sleeping and started untying his ropes. They got ropes, while I got platinum, I felt special—sorta. "Adam, untie Lari. I'll guard the door. We got ten minutes to be out of here."
He lifted his dark head and leveled his emerald gaze on me, "Syn, he's going to attack the Guild, we have to stop him."
"Untie Larissa Adam, he won't attack them tonight," I said feebly. I had no idea if he would, but I couldn’t go into panic mode right now, not juiced up on Demon.
I turned back to watch him carefully untie Larissa while patting her cheek to wake her up. He was gentle, his hands sure as he undid her bindings. "Baby, we gotta go."
Larissa opened her eyes and turned a brilliant smile on Adam, "Told you she'd be here to save us."
"Guys, we gotta go," I said needing to get them a safe distance before anyone noticed they were gone.
We went out through the door at the top of the stairs. I'd made a note to peek and make sure it led out since it was a lower level but surprisingly it looked like it was accessible without setting off any alarms. The cool night air washed over me, calming my nerves, as we emerged from the back of the house.
"Two guards inside watching through the upper windows Syn, one on the ground level but he is looking at a magazine." Adam said going right into combat mode.
"Get closer, I'll throw up the shield, Lari throw up a spell to shield our presence, Adam, watch our asses."
After we had everything up, we walked out onto the green grass and into the shrubbery only stopping to fortify Larissa's spell before we headed for the gate. As we got closer the metal bars slid open to allow several dark colored SUV's through.
"Get in the bushes!" I shouted, remembering Ryder had been able to see through my glamour a few days ago. We held our breath as the cars drove past and with the last one going through, we scrambled and made it through the gate before it had fully closed.
"Let's go, Adrian's waiting," I said. When we had made it the mile and half on foot to the car Adrian was waiting in, I froze with my hand on the cars door handle. Hounds howled furiously. His hounds.
I turned to look back the way we'd come, sparing one last look at the dim lights in the distance before I opened the door and jumped in. I had to stop Ryder before he put us into a war we would never recover from.
Thirty Two
We sat in an abandoned warehouse, it wasn’t ideal but it was an indication that we were officially at the top of the Fae's persona non grata list. I paced, burning a hole into the concrete floor. Adrian sat watching me, he'd explained how the Demon had called and told him to be waiting for us.
"So let me get this straight, the Guild did attack the Fae?" I stopped pacing long enough to level Adam with a glare.
"It was someone from the Guild Syn, but they were off, we left the Guild an hour or so after the party got started. Figured the Darklands would be more alive and well we worried about you," he said shaking his dark head as he sat beside Larissa on an old ratty couch that had been left here.
"Explain off and thanks for worrying, next time stay where I send you," I said tapping my foot nervously. If we had in fact attacked the Fae I couldn’t fix this.
"I couldn’t tap their powers to stop them, they didn’t notice us either. Witches would have, Lisa was there and she was one of them. I couldn’t sense anything inside of them, as if they were dead?"
"Dead?" I asked to confirm and grinned. "That's actually good, well not that she's dead but it means the Guild didn’t do shit. We don't come back to life…" I spared a look at Adrian who was now sitting up on the hood of the broken down car that was stored in the warehouse, "Unless someone brings us back." I amended.
"That still doesn’t explain why they would be at the club attacking the Fae," Adam continued.
"Actually, it does," I said moving over to lean against the rusted car, hoping I wouldn’t need a tetanus shot after I did so, "If they thought we'd be able to figure out more about the murders and who was doing it, who would you take out first?"
"The Guild and then the Fae investigating it," Adrian said making us all turn in his direction, "What? It's who the Vampires would take out."
"Not helping Adrian," I said holding his gaze before dropping it, "So they killed Witches, somehow turned them to something cold and lifeless and had them attack the Fae, because there is no faster way to start a fucking war then to openly attack someone on their own turf. Whoever is doing this is starting a war and they know it. Smart, which makes this dangerous. The Guild should be on lockdown, if they are following protocol."
"Syn, you should get cleaned up a little more. You're still bleeding a little, are you sure you’re okay?" Adrian said huskily his eyes turning hard at the sight of blood.
"I got in a fight with a door, I've done worse," I said sharply. My head hurt, hell my entire body hurt right now as I came down from the Demon-Blood-Kiss high. My nose was still bleeding a bit, but I'd recover without any more magical help.
"You know, considering our line of work, you get hurt a lot Syn," Adam joked.
"We need a plan, Ristan said I needed to get close to Arianna and look at her—whatever the hell that means," I said absently.
"The Light Heir?" Adrian said before whistling, "Good luck, she's bouncing all over the place. First she was hiding and now she can't get enough attention."
"Do you know where she'll be tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.
"She'll be downtown, not sure where though. Ryder has the Fae on high alert. No one without clearance can get close to her without him knowing."
"Perfect, we have to figure out how to get around him then," I tapped my finger on my chin and shook my head discarding thought, after thought. "Okay, listen up. We need a plan and fast. We need to figure out where she will be tomorrow and we need to know like yesterday. We need a distraction team, something they wouldn’t see coming."
"And if something is off about her? What then Syn?" Adrian asked narrowing his eyes, "If you take out the Light Heir, you'll start a war."
I let the air from my lungs out slowly as my head bobbed in agreement, "Yes Adrian, but what if she is part of this? Ristan said to get close to her and take a look, what if she's not the Light Heir, what if she's something else?"
Adam sat up and swore, "That would be stupid crazy and how would Ryder not be able to see it?"
"Not sure without being able to bounce this off the Guild, but I think there are spells that could fool the Fae—if she had a powerful enough Mage working with her, or a Witch. It's not easily done, but it isn't impossible either."
"If they're able to conceal it from Ryder, how the hell will you be able to see through it?" Adrian asked swinging his legs over to sit beside me.
"Because I've something he doesn't, I have a coven who can push enough magic inside of me to see the truth, but to do that…I'm going to have to light up, which means we're going to need a huge distraction," I mumbled.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I'd barely managed to sleep, I kept dreaming of Ryder finding us and throwing us in those cells he had in his basement. I could feel his eyes on me as if he was standing right in front of me inside the crappy warehouse. As if he'd seeped inside and was watching me from within a dream. My dream.
I'd managed a sponge bath with water Adam and Larissa had brought back with them, along with some extra clothes for today. Adrian had gone back to Vlad, since his absence would be noticed. We had rounded up enough people to create a small flash mob, but I wasn’t positive they'd be enough to draw the Fae away from Arianna, but I only need a few seconds to see whatever it was Ristan wanted me to.
There was also this restlessness inside of me, as if something was fighting to get out. I'd stared in the mirror for an entire hour trying to figure out what the hell was in my eyes that Ryder had been talking about…they didn’t change once. And yet something inside was changing, I could feel it twisting and turning as it fought to come to the surface.
Ryder said I was Fae, but th
at was impossible wasn’t it? Wouldn’t I have known if I was? Could I have been what the Fae were looking for when they killed my parents? I had too many questions and no answers. I closed my eyes and groaned, the sun wasn’t even up yet and I already had a million problems to solve.
I must have fallen back to sleep, because when I opened my eyes this time, I was back in the small house inside Faery and Ryder was lying beside me playing with a lock of my hair between his fingers.
"You shouldn’t have left me Syn, I have to punish you now," he whispered.
"You say that an awful lot Ryder. I have to stop this, before more innocent lives are lost," I replied back to dream Ryder.
He smirked and dropped my hair from between his fingers and placed his hand on my face softly. "And if your people attacked mine Synthia? What then?"
"Then we become enemies and I fight against you," I whispered breathlessly.
He laughed, but it was a cold and emotionless sound, "You would lose," he moved over me as he said it, pinning my hands softly in one of his hands, above my head. "I miss being buried in your warmth Syn, I need to fuck you."
I smiled and shook my head. "Not unless you release me from the contract," I uttered breathlessly as his mouth moved dangerously close to mine.
"I don’t think so, you still wear my mark around your neck Syn, I like how it looks on you," his eyes sparkled with amusement.
"Go away Ryder," I growled, but he closed the distance and silenced my mouth with his, his kiss was soft but carried an urgency I matched as the kiss deepened. Moaning against him probably wasn’t the best response since I wasn’t supposed to want his kiss, but it was all I had— until the bed shook violently.
I watched him pull away and smile coldly, "I'll find you and when I do Syn, I won't be gentle. And I’m going to find you. I always find my prey Pet." And then he was gone and Adam was above me, shaking me.
I sat up looking at him in bewilderment. I swallowed and shook off the dream I'd been indulging in. "What happened?"
"You were having a nightmare," he said in way of explanation. Of course he would think it was a nightmare, I had them a lot growing up. He'd always make me wake up, even when Larissa hadn't been able to.
"I'm okay, what time is it?" I asked looking up through the broken window that sat high up on the wall of the warehouse.
"It's 6 a.m. Time to shine, this was on the door when I went for coffee," Adam said handing me a quickly scrawled note.
"Arianna will be outside the courthouse, what the hell would she be doing at the courthouse?" I asked more to myself but Adam answered anyways.
"Picking up her marriage license more than likely or meeting with the Mayor?"
"Call Terrance, tell him to meet us at nine at the courthouse and to make sure he calls everyone else," I said taking the coffee he picked up from the floor and handed to me, I smiled and sipped it slowly letting it filter through me. Terrance was a kid who did odd jobs for us when we needed help. He was a good kid, who had been given a bad hand in life. We used him, but we paid him well.
“If this goes south Adam, you need to get Larissa out of Spokane. The Seattle Guild is the best choice to hide from the Fae.”
"Fuck that Syn," Adam said standing up to place his hands angrily on his hips, "If this goes bad, I'm not leaving you. You’re my only family Syn, you and Larissa are all I have."
"It wasn’t a question Adam. You will take Larissa and get her someplace safe. Ryder won't kill me, he might say he will, but he won't. Not while I'm under his contract—he owns me Adam. I need to know you can do this. I need to know you two are safe. You're the only ones that can be used against me and Ryder knows it, he’ll use it," I said grabbing his hand and pulling him down beside me and somehow managing to not spill a drop of coffee in the process.
"Of course," he replied holding my hand and looking at me with love in his emerald eyes, "Syn, we can be used against you—but the same is true for us, we'd be willing to move the moon for you. We need you, so don’t do anything stupid. I also need you to know that we don’t just stay because no one else will join…we stay because we're family. We have each other and that’s more than most people have in this world."
I pulled his hand up to my lips and kissed it before standing up to stretch. "We need to get this show on the road, go call Terrance. Tell him we need that flash mob today."
I wasn’t good with emotions, showing them, feeling them—or expressing them. I wasn’t the type to wear them on my sleeves. He knew how I felt without me having to tell him. This idea had to work, the Demon released me to do this and right now it was the only lead we had.
Thirty Three
Downtown Spokane Washington was packed, someone had leaked that the Light Heir would be making an appearance. We waited at the back of the crowd in hoodies, pulled up to hide us, the rest of the flash mob who would be causing the distraction were dressed the same to stand out from the crowd when the right time came.
We waited, the magic pulsing inside of me ready to explode, we'd spent over an hour of nothing but collecting and depositing magic inside of me. Adam had laughed telling me I'd be lit up enough to power the city. I was hoping it wouldn’t be the case since the plan was to use and dump the magic quickly enough to not pull attention to us.
The entire crowd was hushed, as if this was a monumental event in time…which it wasn’t. I'd never understood the draw of the Fae until I'd melted against Ryder. His blistering heat had drawn me in, like a moth to a flame. He owned my mind without having to turn me FIZ. My thoughts constantly flowed to him and our time in Faery.
"Showtime," Adam said as a sleek black limo pulled up to the steps of the courthouse which was something they would never allow for anyone else.
I turned my head and gave him a reassuring smile as we pushed through the crowd as the flash mob started up. It was the perfect disguise for what we had planned, or would have been until Ryder stepped from the limo and his men stepped from the crowd to create a guard around the princess.
It was now or never, the mob was dancing to Kesha's Your Love is My Drug…as if they couldn’t have picked a more annoying song? I stepped from the group with Larissa and Adam pushing power into me. Ryder's eyes landed on us fleetingly. "Shit dance!" I said starting to move with the group, if not horribly off kilter.
His eyes moved through the crowd and off of us, I almost exploded into laughter at how goofy and bad we danced, but the situation was dire and laughter was something we could do later when we'd finished it. As the group of men parted to allow Arianna to wave at the mob, I stopped moving with the crowd and sent my second sight searching her…nothing happened. I pumped up the magical juice and almost threw up.
"Oh my God," I uttered, I shook my head and stepped back as if I could not put enough distance between me and the horror I was seeing.
"Shit Syn, go dark!" Adam shouted but it was too late, Ryder had seen me.
"Fuck! Split up, blend in!" I shouted, already retreating into the mass of dancers. I couldn’t shake the power pulsing through me. I growled scaring a few of the humans who had joined the tweet about the flash mob Terrance had sent out.
I could feel Ryder bearing down on me, hunting me. But when I looked over my shoulder it wasn’t me he had gone after—he'd gone after Adam. He held him by the back of his hood, Adam shook his head. He was telling me to go. "Let him go Ryder," I shouted wishing the music would stop.
"I told you Syn, when I found you I would punish you. You only feel when something is taken away from you Pet," he turned smiling coldly at Adam who was now struggling in earnest to get away from him.
"Ryder, take me. Let him go," I whispered knowing he would hear it over the crowd that had now sensed danger.
He didn’t listen, instead he turned and propelled Adam to Dristan who grinned and touched Adam. I felt the connection I shared with Adam waver briefly, he was trying to keep me from feeling what was going on. I watched his eyes as they settled on me and locked. I shook my head in denial. Ryder
wouldn’t allow this.
The noise went silent around me as if I'd stepped out of reality. The only sound, my own blood flowing inside of my ears and my own breathing as everything went still around me—frozen in time. Dristan was trying to turn Adam FIZ. It was too much and everything inside of me snapped as the world stopped around me. Like a vacuum. One minute I was standing silently, the next I was screaming my pain with everything inside of me, everything I had. I would die before I let the Fae hurt my family again.
Glass exploded from the limo and the surrounding buildings, crashing to the pavement below. Humans screamed in pain as they hit the ground. I couldn’t stop. Something inside of me had broken open and was demanding to come out. I barely registered the shock on Ryder and Dristan's faces as they watched me.
I couldn’t stop it, whatever had opened just kept coming, I couldn’t focus on anything and yet I saw everything. As if I was standing above watching as my body reaped havoc on anyone foolish enough to not run away. I could see fear, smell it. It was intoxicating, my hair whipped with electrical current as the ozone grew thick around me.
I tried pulling back, I was in trouble. Whatever was happening—I couldn’t control it. I met Ryder's gaze and locked onto it. His nose was bleeding, but otherwise he seemed to be handling my power overload better than anyone else. He spoke low, clearly and right to me even though he addressed Dristan, "Dristan, let Adam go," he growled never letting my gaze move from his.
Adam hit the pavement and stumbled over to me. Larissa crawled up from where she'd been taken to the ground with everyone else. The only sound was my labored breathing. I couldn’t take my eyes from Ryder, he looked worried and that wasn’t something you seen him show—ever.
"Back up, now," he said as he and his men started backing up slowly.
"Syn, you have to stop now!" Adam shouted but when I turned to meet his eyes he flinched, "Oh my God Syn," he whispered horrified.