Page 110 of Death Warden
I crouched behind a car, the house on the corner in view if I peeked out. Tobias was beside me. He’d insisted on coming with us.
Spectre was on the opposite side of the street with Logan, and Curo was slightly behind us with Wendall and Ruby.
My radio crackled softly, and Spectre’s voice filtered through. “We move closer. Up to the fence. Enforcement team will go in first. Secure the area and locate Finley and Dralos’s body. Adi will go in last.”
I depressed the button. “Copy that.”
I glanced at Tobias with a grin. “Kinda exciting, huh?”
He crouched with his back pressed to the car, eyes squeezed shut. A scent hit me, not a body scent like I picked up on the guys, but something else, somethingother. Maybe having two hellhounds as conduits had sharpened my hellhound sense, but I was sure what I was smelling were emotions. Bitter and sharp. Fear and…guilt? Not sure how I knew that. I just did.
“Tobias? Are you okay?”
He turned his head to look at me, mouth turning down. “I’m sorry, Adi. I had to. Dralos is too powerful and this place with the leylines…If his body had been anywhere else, then…”
My stomach dropped. “What did you do?”
The screech of tires burning rubber cut through the silence as several black vehicles zoomed onto the street, coming to a halt around the manor house.
Spectre cursed and stepped out from his hiding spot.
“You called them? The Mageri?” I stared in horror at Tobias. “You know what they’ll do to me, and you called them?”
He stood slowly and backed away from me. “I can’t lose my power, Adi. I won’t. It’s one life to preserve the way of life for many. I had no choice.”
The male who’d advised, counseled, and consoled me all my life had betrayed me. I stood to face him.
“Yes, you had a choice. You could have had faith in me. You could have believed that I could do this.” My lip curled and a bitter tang bit at the back of my tongue. “Did youeverbelieve in me?”
His eyes flared with a cocktail of emotions and then he shook his head and tucked in his chin. “This isn’t personal, Adi.”
“What the fuck did you do?” Curo approached at a stride.
Tobias backed up into a hedgerow.
I kept my voice even. “He called the Mageri council.”
The meaty sound of fist meeting face was followed by Tobias’s howl of pain.
“You fucking worm.” Curo shook his head in disgust.
The sound of car doors slamming, the buzz of angry voices, and the fizz of magic swelled around us.
“Leave him.” I grabbed Curo’s arm before he could hit Tobias again. “He’s not worth it.”
“Get out of my city,” Curo said. “If you’re still here once I’m done speaking to the council, then Iwillkill you.”
A crowd had gathered outside the house. Curtains twitched in nearby homes and lights came on. So much for keeping this low profile.
Several men had exited the vehicles and were now surrounded by the hulking forms of Grave Spirits. Curo and I approached hand in hand, our power connection crackling between us. The connection between Spectre and I heated the closer I got to him, and the one with Logan snapped taut too.
“This is MC Syndicate business,” Dax said. “You have no authority here.”
“I beg to differ,” one of the Mageri said. The guy was tall and thin with an imperious air. “This is Mageri council business and you should have alerted us of this threat as soon as you became aware of it.”
“And what will you do?” Dax folded his arms across his chest. “I assume you’re here to fix this, right?”
The Mageri’s eye twitched. “We’re here to take Adienne Blackmore into our custody.”
