Storm Secrets, page 15
part #4 of Scarlet Jones Series
No sound coming from the inside.
I thought about breaking the door. It would be an easy thing to do with my magic. But what would that accomplish? If Noah was in there, he didn’t want to talk to me. Not about Elisa or anything else. I pressed my ear to the door again and held my breath to listen but heard only silence.
“Tell her…tell her they’re gone. Everybody is gone, and I’m on my own.”
I turned around and left the building.
Fifteen
“Where the hell have you been?”
Wilder was all alone in the office when I got back. The office. Who would have thought I’d feel normal in an ECU office?
Also, Wilder was pissed off. Very pissed off.
“I could ask you the same thing. Where are the others?” I dropped my phone on the desk and fell in the chair, exhausted. I need to juice up for tonight’s attack. The night before had taken its toll on me, and being up since five in the morning hadn’t helped. Wilder’s spell stone had dulled the pain on my shoulder where the vampire had buried a dagger in me, but the wound wasn’t completely healed. The pain was going to come back, but I didn’t dare tell Wilder that, or he’d cancel tonight’s attack.
Making an effort to calm himself down, Wilder swallowed hard. “Training. I called you,” he informed me. “Four times.”
“I was busy, didn’t hear the ring.” Probably because I’d put the phone on silent.
“What were you busy with?” He crossed his arms in front of him, which made his muscles stand to attention even more. I looked away.
“Just stuff.”
“Stuff?” He smiled bitterly, then walked over to my desk. “You know what I said when they asked me to put a tail on you?”
I raised my brows in surprise. He’d been following me around? I thought they’d dropped that after the first night I left the office. I hadn’t felt anyone watching me ever since.
“I said no because I trusted you to know what the hell you were doing.” So he wasn’t tailing me. “Imagine my surprise when I found out you don’t.”
“Wilder, I was busy with some personal things for a few hours. So what?” He was making a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be.
“There are no personal things during working hours. Don’t you understand that you answer to someone now?”
He dragged Stacey’s chair over to my desk and sat down across from me. Impossible to avoid his eyes now. I didn’t like what they made me feel, partly because he looked concerned as much as angry.
“Do you understand that I’m not a telepath, and that if I don’t find you at the office or through the phone, I can’t tell you what the hell I’ll be doing?” I would have told him if I’d met him that morning, but he wasn’t at the office. What the hell was I supposed to do?
“If you can’t reach me, you wait for me,” he said. “My ass is on the line here, Dirt. You’re my responsibility. If you do something stupid, I’ll pay for it because I vouched for you.”
“Why?” I asked in a heartbeat. He didn’t know me. He had no reason to vouch that I wouldn’t do anything the ECU didn’t want to me do.
Wilder was taken aback by my question. He wasn’t expecting it.
“I’m a Dirt, aren’t I? I’m here to help with the demons. In case you forgot about what happened last night, that’s exactly what I’m doing. You have no reason to be mad.”
“I get mad—very mad—when I don’t know where the hell you are, if you’re dead or alive, and you won’t pick up your damn phone.” He said it in almost a whisper. I flinched.
“I’m not that easy to kill.” Having nothing else to say, I shrugged.
With a sigh, he lowered his head. “Don’t do it again, Scarlet. I need to know where you are at all times.”
I could continue to argue with him, but I needed my energy. He thought he needed to know where I was. It made no difference if I said he didn’t.
“Done,” I said with a nod.
Surprised again, Wilder squinted at me. “Done?”
He apparently was expecting me to argue. “Done. And I need food.”
Leaning back, he stared at me. “Where were you?”
“Monastery, met with Colton Stone, and went to The Lair.” A hell of a report, if you asked me.
“The Lair?” he said almost breathlessly.
I nodded. “I know somebody there who can help me find Elisa.”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times without making a sound. “And?” He wanted to be angry, to shout at me, but he decided that finding Elisa was more important, so he swallowed it.
“I didn’t see him, but I left a message.” A message that Elisa might never get. The hopeful look in Wilder’s eyes wasn’t making me feel any less of a failure.
“Do I need to say it?” he then asked, standing up, dragging Stacey’s chair back to its place.
“Nope.” I moved my mouse around to turn the screen of my computer on, the picture of the baby koala I’d set up on the first day there almost made me smile. I already knew what Wilder wanted to hear me say. “I won’t go there on my own again.”
“Good,” he said, satisfied as he walked back to his desk. “Good.”
“Any news on the four Storms? Are they up?” I asked halfheartedly.
I wasn’t sure I knew what to say to them now that I’d had time to think. Why would they believe in anything I said when I explained that all the people I’d sent to that monastery were now gone, disappeared without a trace, probably suffering the same fate they had with those demons at the subway station?
“Not yet. How’s your shoulder?”
“It’s fine.” It wasn’t. Just like I suspected, the pain was beginning to come back, but he didn’t need to know that. “So when are they going to wake up? I need to speak to them.” Hopefully, by then, I’d know what to say. I could always start with you're free now, the ECU is no longer hunting us down, but I doubted that would meant to them what it meant to me, after having spent so much time with the demons.
“At least another day," Wilder said, coming back to my desk. “Let me see.” He nodded at my shoulder.
“Um…no.” I was wearing a shirt underneath my jacket. A shirt with no buttons in the front.
Wilder raised a brow. “Show me your shoulder, Dirt.”
“Bite me, Captain Asshole.” I turned to the screen again and pretended to open the program.
“See, I would, but you seem to think you won’t like it,” he whispered, sending shivers down my back. My throat went dry. Wilder kneeled at my side. “Show me your shoulder.”
Like he’d put a spell on me, I took off my jacket and pulled up the sleeve of the shirt. He couldn’t see anything, so without warning, he took the hem and pulled it up. All the way. A blush spread all over me. My black bra was right in front of his face. My boobs were right in front of his face.
I watched him take the bandage off the wound, completely focused. His eyes never wavered, never looked down at my breasts, not for a single second. It was actually admirable how unaffected by me he was. It was disappointing for reasons I didn’t want to understand. His warm breath blew against my skin, making things worse. His fingers touched the area around the wound, raising goose bumps on my skin.
Get it together, Scarlet!
“You need to see a healer,” he finally said, and very gently, put the bandage over the wound again, and put my shirt down. Finally, I could breathe again.
“I’m fine.”
“You’ll see a healer or tonight’s operation is off.”
“Goddamn you!” I spit.
“Come on, let’s go.” He had his jacket in his hands and waited for me by the door.
“Go where?”
“Food,” he said. “You need food.”
My stomach growled at the sound of the word. “I’ll order something and eat here.”
“No, you won’t. Get your ass up, Dirt. Captain’s orders.” With a wide grin on his face, he walked out of the office.
Like a robot, I followed him two steps behind, all the while cursing him under my breath. I liked being told what to do even less than I remembered.
He took me to a restaurant a couple blocks from the facility. I was careful to block my powers, but I was still uneasy walking around like nothing was wrong, especially after the demons had killed the family of humans. If those suckers kept watch of the facility downtown, they were probably watching this one, too. They could see me perfectly.
Wilder didn’t seem concerned, or he hid it well. The restaurant he took us to was less fancy than I expected. It was tiny, with an entrance hidden by a large fence covered in bright green vines. No name or sign outside. I was starting to think I’d pegged Captain Asshole all wrong. He was friendly with a witch waiter, barely out of his teens, he smiled broadly while he sat across from me around the table for two, and even greeted two other werewolves eating a little farther from us warmly. He was nothing like the asshole at the office of just a day ago.
“Don’t tell anyone about this place. Nobody knows about it,” he said.
“Am I supposed to feel special?” I mumbled, taking the menu in my hands. He put his on top of it.
He decided to skip answering my question. “Don’t bother. I know what you’re going to eat.”
I rolled my eyes. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. This place serves the best ribs in the city. They’re the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. I swear you’ll like it.” His face had lit up, his eyes full of golden specks. He looked younger when he was…happy. He seemed happy. Like the troubles of the office and everyday life couldn’t reach him in that place.
I smiled. “Okay.”
For the first time in my life, I let someone else order for me while I sat there and watched him. Something about the air around him was completely different now, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
That was a very bad thing. A huge warning, if I’d ever seen one.
So I cleared my throat and gathered my thoughts. I was better than this. I wouldn’t stoop to this level. Not for anything.
“Any updates? What meeting were you in this morning?”
“The top dogs,” he said. “I gave a full report of what happened last night.”
“I’m guessing Adams was happy.”
“Adams is never happy, but that’s not the point. The first operation was successful.”
“I don’t think Archie would agree.” He was still in a coma and nobody knew when he would wake up. Trying to wake him up with magic could have catastrophic consequences so the doctors and healers had decided to wait. Poor guy. I didn’t know him long but he’d seemed like a decent witch.
“Archie will be okay. He has the best care in the States at his service. He’s a tough fella,” Wilder said, nodding at himself. “He’ll be up in no time.” I saw the fear in his eyes, heard it in his words. He was trying to convince himself, but he wasn’t sure. Not at all. Then, he surprised me all over again: “How are you?”
“What do you mean? You can see me.” He knew I was still hurt on the shoulder. He was making me see a healer for it, too.
“No, I mean, how are you?” he said. “How are you feeling?”
Oh. “All right.” Desperate. Confused. Scared.
“It’s going to be fine, you know? We’re going to find them,” he said after a pause, inviting my eyes to his.
“And if we don’t?” It wasn’t a question meant for him, just one I’d been asking myself. What if we never found anyone? How the hell was I going to live? It killed me to think it, and Wilder saw it. Saw my weakness as clear as day.
“Then we’ll keep searching.”
A sad smile took over my face. “The ECU isn’t going to care. They might turn a blind eye to our search for a few weeks, maybe even a month, but not forever. They’re glad everybody’s gone.”
“Scarlet, we’re not all as bad as you think.”
See, that just got me angry. “Right. Right, sorry. Not everyone from the ECU has hunted me and my kind down and tried to kill us more times than I can count. That definitely didn’t happen just a week ago.”
Wilder opened his mouth but couldn’t think of what to say for a long minute. “I haven’t. I’ve never hunted you down or killed any Storms.”
“Lucky you!” I laughed dryly. “Tell me something, if the leaders ordered you to shoot me, right here, right now, would you tell them no?”
He wouldn’t. He was a werewolf, trained to serve probably since he was a kid. He followed orders. It’s why werewolves were the best soldiers in the world. A visible shiver washed down his back. I could see the goose bumps on his crossed arms above the table.
“We have enough talk about death at the office. Let’s try to relax for a while.”
The disappointment grew. Wilder wouldn’t admit to my face what we both already knew. Biting back angry tears, I nodded. We’d talk death at the office later.
***
Night fell slower than usual, or maybe it just seemed that way because of the mood I was in. I was impatient, angry for having to go through several tests just to get the okay to join Wilder and the team in tonight’s hunt. It was all his fault. He insisted I saw the healer, and when he saw me, it took a lot to convince him that I was okay, that I could fight, that I wouldn’t die. Maybe they wanted to nail the impression that they cared about me in my head, but I wasn’t stupid. All they cared about was my dragon.
The next demon horde was in Murray Hill, in between the offices of a television station and the Consulate of Brazil. A quiet neighborhood for the most part. The opposite of the subway station, which was always crowded, which told us that the demons had no longer any preference when it came to location like they initially did. Something dark, quiet, and with a couple rooms would be just enough. The area was mostly populated by humans. All companies around were owned and operated by them, which told us nothing. We’d chosen this location to be second because the red dots on Miss Vera’s map were very crowded. That meant a lot of demon traffic, and probably a lot of Storms around, too.
It had to be at night, Wilder said, because that was the only time when the ECU could shut down an entire neighborhood, clear it of humans, and make sure nobody was around for the attack. The businesses were closed, and it was easier to keep the place empty that way. It was also easier to clean up in the dark afterward.
I wore an identical copy of last night’s navy suit and took the same amount of weapons and Pretters with me. Wilder checked my shoulder again, but after the second healing spell that Rob the healer conjured on me, I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be a problem to fight my way through demons. It was colder tonight that it had been the night before, but my nerves didn’t let me feel it. I couldn’t wait to get down there in the basement and see the demons. I couldn’t wait for the dragon to turn to a sword.
“Do you absolutely have to run to them like that?” said Wilder as he watched the tablet in his hands. Tonight, another six soldiers had gone in to check for movement first while we waited outside, the street blocked by three SUVs, and another three parked around us to keep us hidden.
“I do. When they take my magic, that’s when this comes to life,” I said, patting the dragon around my hand.
Wilder didn’t like it, but then again, he didn’t have to. As long as he kept from commenting…
“You need to learn how to turn it on at will. There’s only so many times I can let you go to them by yourself.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“They can kill you before you get that sword.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Or we could at least lure one of them out to do the job, then go in…”
“Yes, Captain.”
A pause. “You’re just humoring me, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Captain.”
The soldiers down in the basement had movement. They stopped walking down the hallway.
“Can we go now?” I asked halfheartedly. Another five soldiers were behind us, as well as Stacey and Wick. We were as ready as we were ever going to be, although Wick was no longer excited at the idea of attacking a demon horde.
“Go, go, go!” Wilder shouted, and he took off running for the side entrance of the television station building, which led to a narrow stairway and a narrow corridor, at the end of which was the horde.
I ran forward while the six soldiers shot their guns, hoping to catch at least one of them in the small space. As soon as I reached the first solider, I let my magic slip through my pores, grabbed him by the shoulders, and threw him back. The demon took care of the second, and the other four ran back all by themselves.
Raw magic rushed out of me in waves, Wilder’s words in my head. They can kill you before you get your sword. He was right. The demons were smarter now. I could see only three, but there were more inside, waiting for us. So I had to attack them, give them a taste they wouldn’t be able to resist, so they would begin to consume me.
That’s exactly what they did.
A few moments later, my lightning sword was in my hand while I was on my knees, three demons pulling power from my pores like it belonged to them.
When they saw the lightning, they did the strangest thing: they retreated back into the room at the end of the corridor. Without wasting time, I followed. The room was considerably bigger, darker, with candles here and there, two lamps, and lots of boxes in it. It was also much cleaner than the subway toilets, not a thing broken or misplaced.
Except here, another nine demons waited for us. I couldn’t see any Storms, but I’d have time to search afterward. The adrenaline suppressed my fear, sent it to the bottom of my mind, and I fought alongside Wilder and the rest of the team. Hope fueled me. The others could be there, just feet away from me, and to find them, all I had to do was kill the demons. Easy peasy.
Let the games begin.
