Dark Crossroads (The Templar Book 6), page 23
He didn’t even know what the ring was. Reynard’s greed and ego was going to get him killed. I frantically tried to think of some way to convince him not to do this, then saw the box.
“Fine, but I’d suggest you don’t go handling it bare-handed, or carrying it around in your pocket.” I picked up the box from the ground, shaking some of Hellfire’s goo off it. “Scoop it up with this and keep it in here until you figure it out.”
He frowned at me for a moment, then let the amulet hang around his neck and walked forward a step to take the box, knife still in the other hand. Giving it to him, I let go of the box, then quickly slapped his wrist with a piece of string. What looked like white cotton coiled around the mage’s wrist and snapped tight. The amulet around his neck went dark and Reynard gave a shout of surprise.
Then he tried to stab me with the knife.
Luckily I had about twenty more years of hand-to-hand combat experience and easily disarmed him, calling my sword to my right hand. Flipping the weapon around, I whacked the mage in the stomach with the pommel. He doubled over and I kicked him backward. Reynard sprawled on the cement floor, gagging and choking as he clutched his stomach.
Reversing my sword, I extended the tip of it outward and scooped the ring up from the floor. Another shadow moved near the doorway and I tensed for a fraction of a second before I realized who it was.
“Looks like you handled this situation fine without me.” There was a note of pride in Dario’s voice that made me smile.
“Yep. Two mages and a demon, although to be honest the ring took care of one of the mages for me.” I shivered, remembering the veil and feeling grateful that I hadn’t had to face a dozen or more demons.
“That third mage ran for it. It took me a while to track him down. Sorry I’m late to the party here.” Dario stepped forward to look at the ring on the tip of my sword.
“Don’t touch it,” I warned, even though I knew he wouldn’t do anything so foolish.
“You want to put it back in that box?” he asked.
“I’ve got a better idea.” I pulled a little velvet bag out of one of the pockets on my cargo pants and handed it to Dario. “Can you hold this open while I drop the ring inside.”
The vampire obviously trusted me because he took the bag without question, opening it up and holding it at the end of my sword. I tipped the blade downward and watched the golden band slide into the null bag. Then just to be safe, I tied the top and whispered a locking ward on the bag before putting it into the box.”
“Let’s go home,” I told Dario. I was tired, filthy, and I stank of sulfur and putrid rotting goo. My immediate future needed to be a shower, then eventually some sleep because unlike other Templars, I had to be at work tomorrow at the coffee shop.
“What about him?” Dario asked, nodding toward Reynard as we walked to the doorway.
I shrugged. “He’ll be fine.” As for the Templar handcuffs…well, Reynard could figure out how to get those off on his own. I had no idea how to and I wasn’t about to waste any time helping that asshole out.
“Good.” Dario put his arm around me. “Think Essie has any of that goulash left over? I’m starved.”
Chapter 26
I handed the stack of papers over to Elder Purcell. Who knew that taking my Oath would result in so much paperwork? It wasn’t just the tax and direct deposit forms either, but health insurance enrollment and life insurance beneficiary forms as well.
If I bought the big one, I’d leave it all to my nephews and niece.
The one thing that differentiated my job from Tremelay’s, besides the sword, was that I didn’t need to fill out any reports about what went down last night. Good thing too, because I’d lied. I’d lied so much that I wasn’t sure I could keep everything straight if Elder Purcell decided to ask questions.
“Soul trap.” The elder wrinkled his face in disgust. “And it wasn’t even there.”
I’d killed several birds with one stone, or rather with one big lie, and told the man that what Hellfire had been looking for was the soul trap that Dark Iron had stolen. I also mentioned that since the rightful owner had been in Baltimore this past November, I’d assumed the rightful owner had tracked down its location and retrieved it. I didn’t go into any made-up details on Dark Iron’s fate, not wanting to be caught out when Chuck put that video on the internet, or gave it to Golden Hemlock, or when Reynard decided to screw me over.
I also had tried to avoid details on Hellfire’s death, unsure whether I should say Reynard killed him or that I’d done it myself. Thankfully Elder Purcell didn’t seem to care how the mage had died, or that he hadn’t been brought in for justice. I got the feeling he was of the old “let God sort them out” school, and was relieved he wouldn’t have to deal with trials and costly incarcerations.
He didn’t want to see the body, the scene, anything. Elder Purcell just seemed content with my assurance that the mage was dead.
I don’t know why I kept the ring a secret. Something knotted up in my stomach at the thought of turning it over to him, so I kept it in the null bag and put the box in the very back of my bathroom cabinet behind the tampon box. When Mom and Dad got home I’d talk to them about it. Maybe.
Crap, I hope this wasn’t like that hobbit ring. Was I going to end up in some damp cave muttering to it and paranoid that someone would steal it from me?
Elder Purcell left and I got ready for work. Buff’s assignment as my bodyguard had ended. I hadn’t even needed to suggest that Dario pay him through the end of the month, and give him a few leads on other well-paying security jobs. To celebrate, he’d taken Gran out to brunch at some swanky place. She’d left dressed in her Sunday best with her hand on Buff’s arm. I’ll admit I was a bit jealous that he’d invited her out and not me, but then again it was nice for Gran to have a friend. And it was nice that she hadn’t been here when Elder Purcell had come by for our meeting.
We were busy at work. I’d thought briefly about quitting now that I’d be getting a stipend from the Order, but I loved my job. I’d miss seeing everyone, interacting with customers and my coworkers, making coffee drinks. And the extra money wouldn’t be bad either. I might need to reduce my hours a bit if I ended up with a lot of Templar assignments, but I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
Golden Hemlock came in just as I was ending my shift. I tried to ignore her, but something told me I needed to just get it over with, so I clocked out, had Sean make me a mocha latte, and went to sit down across from her.
“I had an interesting visit at Jessup the other day.” She put her phone down on the table and a video began to play. I’d seen it before so I wasn’t quite as panicked as I’d been when Reynard had shown it to me.
I took a sip of my latte. “Yes. Very interesting.”
But what was she going to do about it? Was I about to be hauled out of my workplace and locked up? Would I get one phone call, and if I did should I call my parents or the Order? Or Dario? Would the Order back me up, or let me hang in the wind until they needed me again?
The mage gathered up her phone and stuck it into her purse. “You could have told me, you know.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I made a noncommittal noise and took another sip of my drink.
She sighed. “I don’t know what the hell Dark Iron did to piss off the Order—excuse my language. The guy seemed to have a habit of pissing people off though, so I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m just glad I don’t have to haul you in because I gotta say I was a bit worried you might put up a fight and I’d end up with a sword through my chest.”
I tried not to slump in relief. Elder Purcell had come through. I wasn’t sure if he’d returned Golden Hemlock’s call before or after I’d taken my vow, but either way I was grateful. This was one less problem I needed to face—unless Elder Purcell decided my actions against Dark Iron violated the Order’s code of ethics and conduct.
But at least the Order wouldn’t be executing me, or probably even jailing me. I might end up with some truly shitty assignments, but I could deal with that.
“So where will you go from here?” I asked, hoping that wherever it was it was far, far from Baltimore. She hadn’t seemed to care about Hellfire’s attacks, or the murder of Haul Du members. I had no idea what Justices did in their free time. Maybe embroidery? Bingeing Netflix? Golf?
“Next is Argentina.”
I bit back all sorts of curses that would have been inappropriate for a Templar to think, let alone voice out loud.
“My job is not quite finished. See, the reason I was sent to find Dark Iron was because he allegedly stole a valuable magical item from another.”
Golden Hemlock stood, but I remained seated, hiding my expression behind my latte cup. So what if she found out I’d returned the soul trap to its original owner? And if he, or she, found out I’d disabled it, hopefully I could hide behind the Order on that one as well.
I waited until I was sure she was long gone, then finished my mocha latte, and got my sword out of my locker in the coffee shop back room. I’d walked to work today rather than pay for parking. Last night’s rain had continued off and on throughout the day but the temperature had dropped making the sidewalks slick with patches of black ice. A shadow detached itself from a building and stepped in front of me.
My heart warmed. “Hi.”
Dario wrapped an arm around me, snaking it in between my sword and my coat. “Hello beautiful. We’re a few blocks from Little Italy. Dinner at Sesarios’? Or should we head over to Brewer’s Art? They’ve got a new Belgian on tap.”
I leaned against him, letting him partially support me as we walked. “Can’t. Today’s Wednesday.”
“Ah, the Anderon game.”
“I’m hosting this week,” I told him even though he already knew. “Do you want to stay and play with us? Zac can let you run one of the NPCs. Or you can just watch and cheer me on as we battle giants and goblins in the mountains of Pyliamor.”
“Think I’ll just watch.” His arm tightened around me for a quick hug. “So it’s pizza, beer, and chips tonight?”
“No, Gran is cooking. She said something about palascinta? Evidently they’re a hearty type of crépe with meat and walnuts and raisins. She asked if I wanted the dark chocolate sauce to pour over top of them. That would mean it wouldn’t exactly be a finger food, but who can say ‘no’ to chocolate sauce? I certainly can’t.”
“Is she going to play in the game?” Dario chuckled. “That would definitely be worth watching.”
I laughed. “She rolled up a character, and she’s ready to go. A dwarven mage of all things. Should be fun.”
He sighed. “You know, I’m going to miss her when your brother comes to get her next week.”
“Uh, about that…” I looked up at him and grimaced.
“Don’t tell me your brother backed out.”
“I’m the one that backed out. Having her here…I don’t know, I feel like we’ve bonded even more in the past week. We were always close, but this is different. I love having her here. She’ll go back to Middleburg when my parents get back, but until then I decided I really want her to stay with me.”
“And when do your parents come home?”
Dario sounded as if he were pleading, which made me laugh.
“It’ll only be three or four more weeks. Two months at the most. Come on, you love having Gran in the house as much as I do. She cooks, buys booze and groceries, lets Fulk out to pee during the day when I’m working. And Gaia loves her. They both take naps together. She and Buff have this friendship. He’s going to take her to meet his mom sometime next week and they’re all going to play Scrabble.” I stopped walking and looked up at Dario. “I know. Between your house and mine, we don’t really have anywhere private right now.”
He smiled and shook his head. “We can always get a hotel room for a few hours—or maybe put Essie up in a hotel for the night.”
“She’d love that. Get ready for a crazy room service bill, though.”
We started walking again. The night was silent except for the smack of sleet against the pavement and the swoosh of tires as cars made their way carefully down the street. The smell of garlic and oregano wafted from a nearby restaurant. A man stood against the side of a building under an awning, hunched into his overcoat and smoking a cigar. A siren sounded in the distance.
Others might turn up their noses at the place I’d chosen to make a home, but Baltimore was my town, and its residents were my Pilgrims.
As for me, I was their Templar—their Templar Knight.
Want to know when the next Templar book comes out? Make sure to join my mailing list at: https://debradunbar.com/subscribe-to-release-announcements/
About the Author
Debra lives in a little house in the woods of Maryland with her sons and two slobbery bloodhounds. On a good day, she jogs and horseback rides, hopefully managing to keep the horse between herself and the ground. Her only known super power is 'Identify Roadkill'.
For more information:
www.debradunbar.com
Debra Dunbar’s Author page
Also by Debra Dunbar
Accidental Witches Series
Brimstone and Broomsticks
Warmongers and Wands
Death and Divination
Hell and Hexes
Minions and Magic
Fiends and Familiars (2020)
Devils and the Dead (2020)
White Lightning Series
Wooden Nickels
Bum’s Rush
Clip Joint
Jake Walk
Trouble Boys
Packing Heat (2020)
The Templar Series
Dead Rising
Last Breath
Bare Bones
Famine’s Feast
Royal Blood
Dark Crossroads
IMP WORLD NOVELS
The Imp Series
A Demon Bound
Satan’s Sword
Elven Blood
Devil’s Paw
Imp Forsaken
Angel of Chaos
Kingdom of Lies
Exodus
Queen of the Damned
The Morning Star
With This Ring (2020)
Half-breed Series
Demons of Desire
Sins of the Flesh
Cornucopia
Unholy Pleasures
City of Lust
Imp World Novels
No Man’s Land
Stolen Souls
Three Wishes
Northern Lights
Far From Center
Penance
Northern Wolves
Juneau to Kenai
Rogue
Winter Fae
Bad Seed
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my copyeditor Kimberly Cannon whose eagle eyes catch all the typos and keep my comma problem in line, and to Damonza for cover design.
Debra Dunbar, Dark Crossroads (The Templar Book 6)
