Page 20 of Mystic Justice
I searched for a way to move the conversation on in a less volatile way. ‘How come they’re called tusks and not horns?’
‘Horns are made from bone and they are part of your skull. Tusks are ivory, made from dentine.’
‘Do you have to brush them?’
He smiled. ‘No, though we clean them in the shower.’
‘Whenyoutouch them… ?’ I couldn’t help but ask.
Krieg’s lips curved up. ‘It’s not the same at all. Their … sensitivity is keyed to my mate.’
Huh. ‘You let me touch you so you’d be sure Amber hadn’t made a mistake,’ I accused.
‘Perhaps. But evidently she did not.’
I took a big gulp of my Dr Pepper. There was no denying the effect a simple caress had on him: I reallywasthe intended mate to the High King of the Ogres.
Bloody hell.
Chapter Ten
It was hard to say how our fancy lunch might have ended if work hadn’t drawn it to an abrupt halt. My phone blared with a SPEL grade-one alert and my heart raced.
‘Shit,’ I swore, as I read it. A grade one was a call for immediate assistance, whereas a grade two was a request for someone to come within an hour. You only used grade ones when there was a real risk to life or limb, which meant an Inspector was in trouble and they needed back up.Now.
I recognised the call sign: Inspector Elvira Garcia.
I pushed away from the table and bolted for the lift. We were so high that it would be quicker than taking the stairs, though it didn’t feel like that as I jabbed the button impatiently. I was tapping my right foot as I waited for it to arrive and ping open.
Elvira used to be based in Scotland, but after Inspector Stone’s disappearance she’d been relocated to cover England, and Liverpool in particular. The alert told me she was just a few streets away. Liverpool was the hub – the capital city – of the Other, so it had the highest concentration of Inspectors but also the highest concentration of the Other’s nefarious arseholes.
I pressed the down button again impatiently. ‘I go ahead,’ Loki said and took off down the stairwell. If Elvira was hurt, perhaps he could help. Not much was known about them, but it was a fact that the caladrius could heal even the deadliest wound.
As he disappeared from sight, I pushed at the damned button again. Krieg must have settled the bill fast because he came to stand by me. The doors finally opened and I surged inside, jabbing repeatedly at the ground-floor button.
Krieg remained silent, for which I was thankful. I was gathering my magic inside me, raising the intention to kick some serious arse. I didn’t know what I would face so I needed to focus.
When the door opened at the ground floor, I ran out. I knew these streets well – a product of my misspent youth – and I was only a minute or two from Elvira’s position. When I rounded the corner and saw her, I swallowed back a swear word or six. Like me, she had no weapon on her. Stupid! I should have at least had a retractable baton.
She was using her magic, the IR, to blast columns of air at her attackers but there were five of them and only one of her. Ungentlemanly odds.
As they phased in and out of the shadows to reappear in different places, it was clear that they were vampyrs. ‘Black eyes!’ Loki yelled to me in a warning as he flew overhead, keeping well away from them. Smart bird.
Black eyes meant the vampyrs were under a necromancer’s control and not acting of their own free will, so there was no way to save them. They were being controlled like puppets by an evil witch, and they’d attack until their objective – or true death – was achieved. No injury would give them pause: it was their death or ours. Even so, I was touched by regret at the thought of killing them.
I cast around for a weapon and was surprised when Krieg handed me a large dagger. ‘Thanks,’ I muttered, then plunged into the fray. I gathered my intention and drew up my need for a strong light.
‘Watch your eyes!’ I called to Elvira before releasing my magic with a circular motion. Light blasted out so that the dark alleyway was totally bathed in it, banishing the shadows that the vampyrs were moving in and out of.
They flinched and hissed with rage as one of their advantages was taken away from them. A vampyr could cope with daylight but using the shadows was one of their main ways of moving unseen and striking from different angles without warning.
Eradicating their darkness was a trick from Inspector 101 – but it had a sizeable drawback, which was why Elvira hadn’t done it when she was alone. As I maintained the bright light, my magic was tied up in the casting; I might have got rid of one of their advantages but I’d also removed one of mine. I had no magic with which to defend myself. Still, Elvira would have my back, and I had Krieg’s dagger.
The light had made the vampyrs pause and Elvira didn’t waste time. She stepped in with lethal grace, her long limbs whipping into motion as she summoned a column of compressed air and hurled it at the nearest one. He flew backwards, crashing into a brick wall hard enough to make a hole in it. Before he could slide down, she spun and blasted another vampyr with a low-pressure burst that folded him at the waist and sent him careening into his brother.
‘Two for one,’ she grinned, sweat gleaming on her brow, her dark curls wild around her tanned face.
It was my turn. I surged forward, Krieg’s dagger gripped tight in my hand.
