Crave the Darkness (30 page)

Chapter 30

“H
ow’s it look, guys?” I said into my mic. “See anything?”

One member at a time, my team checked in, none of them noticing anything out of the ordinary in the woods surrounding the circle. It figured that Kade would keep to his word in all things. He’d given Anya forty-eight hours, and she was going to get it. I leaned against a tall evergreen, the bark biting into my shoulder. Dimitri’s funeral pyre was nothing more than smoldering ashes now, the magical black flames dying to glowing gray embers sizzling in the rain. The shadow forms of the many Shaedes descended from the sky, swirling in a graceful formation. As they came to earth, corporeal forms were regained, and the mourners took their turns in expressing their condolences to Anya.

I felt the prickle of tears at my eyes. No amount of “I’m sorry for your loss” could bring Dimitri back. Even well intentioned, those condolences were nothing more than hollow words. “Goddamn you, Kade.”

“I suppose your Jinn came here tonight to try to make amends?” Xander’s velvet voice was warm in my ear, though his tone held an edge, as if Tyler had killed Dimitri himself. He did nothing to hide the outrage and utter contempt in his tone. “His presence here tonight was yet another insult to my kingdom. Insults I’ll no longer tolerate. He’ll rot in a PNT prison for assaulting a high king. I’m bringing the charge before Adare in the morning.”

“No.” I turned so I could look at him. “Promise me that you’ll let this go, Xander.”

“I can’t,” he said simply. “He assaulted a king. In public.
At a dignitary function
. If I let this go, others will perceive it as a weakness in me. I will become vulnerable in my detractors’ eyes, and my strength to rule will come int(o question.”

The thought of seeing Tyler thrown into some PNT jail caused my heart to beat much too fast. I’d seen what PNT jailers could do to a prisoner. I couldn’t bear to think of Tyler suffering the same fate, sitting in one of their dingy cells for god-knew-how-long. “Xander.” I tried to keep the tremor of fear from my voice. “I’m still bound to him. He’s compelled to protect me. If the PNT throws him in one of their jails . . . I don’t know everything about our bond. It could be dangerous for me if he was locked away.”

“You would rather I look weak to my people?” His eyes grew cold like frozen amber, and his voice, hard.

“No.”
Think, Darian. Defuse. Deflect.
“What about . . . in-house justice?”

Xander quirked a brow. “Such as?”

“I wouldn’t want you to lose face in front of anyone.” Even
I
knew the importance of maintaining one’s reputation. Sometimes it was all that stood between you and an ass-kicking. “But promise me you won’t bring the PNT into it. Let Raif take him into custody. You can mete out your own punishment.” That I would work like hell to reduce to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. “No one would doubt your power if you let it be known that you don’t run to the PNT for protection. The Shaede Nation can take care of its own problems.”

A corner of Xander’s mouth quirked in a half smile, and I knew that I’d won a battle, if not the war. “Clever girl. Very well,” he said as if making a benevolent proclamation. “I won’t involve the PNT. But the Jinn
will
be held accountable for the insult done to me.”

I let out a shaky sigh of relief. “Thank you, Xander.”

He looked into my eyes as if trying to coax some hidden truth from my mind. I stared back, careful to betray nothing. Xander leaned in as if to kiss me and I put my palm against his chest to stay his progress. No more games. A gust of icy wind blasted my back, and I pulled away, rubbing the prickling hairs on the back of my neck as I looked around. I thought he’d left, but the odd shimmer, like a ripple in the fabric of reality not far from where I stood, made me wonder just how much of our conversation Tyler might have heard.

I still love you
.

Ty’s words seared my mind like a brand. I thought about the feelings his touch, his kiss evoked in me. No one would ever make me feel the way Tyler did.
Ever
. “Go to Anya, Xander. She needs you.”

Xander’s expression became hard, almost sullen, and he turned to leave without saying a word. I watched as he walked away, thinking that for the second time tonight, I’d sent a man I cared about into another woman’s arms.

* * *

“If I have to tell you no again, Ash, I’m going to gut you.”

“You can’t make me stay here,” Asher snorted, folding his arms in front of his chest. “I could follow you and you wouldn’t even know I was there.”

“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that? Fine. You tell me how you do that little I’m-here-but-not-here trick of yours, and inform me as to why in the name of all that is holy I should trust you for
any
reason, and I’ll let you rill let yde shotgun. Otherwise, I could just
wish
for you to stay put and you won’t be following me anywhere.”

Silence answered me.
Figures
. “See ya later.”

I strode toward the front door and pulled it open only to have Asher reach in front of me and slam it closed. “Does anyone know where you’re going or what you’re about to do?”

Raif had been busy arranging for extra guards to watch over Xander’s house for the next eighteen hours, and I’d urged Xander to stay with Anya in her apartment after the funeral rites had been concluded. For all I knew, he was asleep on her couch. “
I
know where I’m going and what I’m doing. That’s enough.”

The only way this was going to work was if no one close to me knew my plan. And when I’d agreed to watch over Anya to begin with, it had been under the condition that when it came to killing whoever was threatening her, I worked alone. Levi knew what I was up to; he was the one who’d set up the meeting and helped me come up with a plan of attack, and of course his ex, Pamela, was in on it as well. Since I didn’t think Kade would know that Levi had hooked me up with the witch, I was relatively safe.

Asher stared me dead in the eye. “You’re going to meet with the witch, aren’t you?” It was my turn to clam up but he continued to press. “Darian, you don’t want to mess with human magick. It’s not natural. They try to control forces they don’t know shit about. It’s trouble.”

“Oh, yeah? You know that firsthand, Ash?” Again, that insufferable silence. He must have been taking lessons from Raif on how to get under my skin. “Stay here. Guard Anya. That’s an
order
. If I find out that you’ve left the house or gone after me, it’ll be treason. I doubt Raif’s punishment would be light.”

Asher’s jaw took on a stubborn set. No way would he risk Raif’s anger. “It’s your funeral, Darian.”

Little shit
. I eyed his palm, still lying flat against the door and then slowly dragged my gaze up to his face. He pulled back and gestured in front of him with a sweep of his hand. “Better get going. Wouldn’t want to be late for your appointment.”

As I stepped through the door, sunlight peered through the fluffy white clouds, remnants of last night’s storm. My skin tingled, and I allowed the light to permeate my skin as I left my physical body behind and joined with the day. The door slammed behind me, and I would have felt smug over getting the upper hand on Asher. But as I left Capitol Hill behind, I couldn’t help the sense of foreboding that settled in my stomach like a heavy stone. I hoped that by going out without him, I wasn’t digging my own grave.

* * *

When I arrived at Pamela’s retail-space-turned-place-of-worship, she was already there, set up and ready to go. She was alone, which seemed to intensify my anxiety. I don’t know what I expected, maybe an entire coven of Goth-looking kids with piercings all over their faces and enough black eyeliner to permanently blind them if they blinked wrong. But Pamela was so . . .
normal
. The only “witchy” thing about her was a pewter pendant of a raven clutching a pentacle in its talon that she wore around her neck.

She couldn’t have been older than twenty-five, with long honey-blond hair that reached her shoulder her shoublades and almond-shaped, dark brown eyes. Tiny freckles dotted her nose and when she smiled in greeting, her face lit up with a girl-next-door expression. I bet she and Levi looked like the prom king and queen when they’d been together.

“You must be Darian.” Her voice was the only thing that didn’t fit her cute coed persona. It was deeper than I expected and hinted at wisdom she was too young to possess. “I’m Pamela. Nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand. I paused, realizing that she expected a friendly greeting, and took her hand in mine. God, I really was a freak. I was so detached that a simple handshake took a moment for me to grasp.
Fantastic
.
Way to display your superior people skills.
When our hands met, Pamela sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Wow, you have a super strong aura. Even for a Shaede. I’m tingling clear up my arm!”

I let go of her hand and rubbed my palm down my pant leg as if I could banish whatever tingle of power Pamela had felt. “Not to be rude or anything, Pamela, but I’m sort of rushed for time.” It was already almost two in the afternoon, which gave me about ten hours before Kade went looking for Anya—and his demon bible. “How long do you think this will take?”

Pamela’s mouth puckered as she seemed to be concentrating on something. “Depends,” she finally said. “Magick isn’t something that can be defined in hours. The effectiveness of a spell depends on the power of the caster, and your receptiveness to the magick.”

I couldn’t answer to my own
receptiveness
. Since I’d never dealt with human magick, I had no idea what to expect. But I had an open mind. Shit, I’d been to realms that didn’t exist on this plane. What was a little witchcraft? “Well then, I guess we’d better get started. I’ll try to be as receptive as possible. The rest is on you.”

“No worries,” Pamela said with a smirk. “I’m a powerful caster. The best in my coven.” She said it as if she’d just won Miss Congeniality at a beauty pageant, which didn’t bother me at all. Pride in your ability is a good thing, especially when you’re trying to win over a client. And that’s what I was: a paying customer.

“Levi said you usually work out your fee after a job is done?”

“Yeah, I never know how much it’s going to take out of me until after the spell is cast. I’ll just bill you, if that’s okay?”

I wondered if she had personalized invoices printed out on pretty pink stationery. Something with a cute slogan like, W
ITCH FOR
H
IRE!
H
AVE
B
ROOM,
W
ILL
T
RAVEL
.

“Levi told you it’s not really about the money, though, right? I mean, I’ve got to make a living and all, but it’s about so much more than that.”

Levi had, in fact, mentioned it. At this point, I didn’t give a shit about the nonmonetary costs. Whatever it was would be worth it if it meant I’d get to kill Kade. “I don’t care about what this will cost me. I’m ready for whatever risk is involved.”

Pamela led me to the center of the room where a low, rectangular table had been draped with a black cloth. Resting in what looked to be a very specific order were various items: a dagger, which looked mhich looore ceremonial than functional; a chalice; a shiny, black-surfaced mirror with a pentagram etched onto its surface; a strange-looking wand; candles of varying colors; and bottles filled with liquids and herbs. Huh. Guess I could add tonight’s experience to my supernatural lexicon. File this one under: human esoteric rituals.

“Okay, before I cast and close the circle, I need you to tell me everything. If this spell is going to work, I’m going to need as many details as possible.”

Pamela knelt beside the table and I followed suit, pulling out the picture Anya had given me and some notes that I had scribbled down with all of the pertinent information I’d need. She listened intently as I talked, absorbing every ounce of information like a sponge. She studied the pictures, sketches, and descriptions I’d written out and placed the visual aids on her altar while reading and rereading the notes I’d taken.

“Okay,” Pamela said with a steadying sigh. “I think we’re ready. You just stay put.”

Pamela fetched a worn leather drawstring bag and the dagger from her altar. I studied the blade, curious, because it didn’t look like it had ever been sharpened.
Huh
. She grabbed a handful of what appeared to be salt from the bag and used it to make a circle around us on the concrete floor. Once that was done, she fetched one of the colored candles from her altar, lit it, and placed it at the edge of the circle. She then held the dagger in both hands, raising it to the sky. Facing due east, she began some sort of ritual, calling on the element of water and the forces associated with it to bless her sacred circle and the workings within it. From there, she worked clockwise facing south, placed another lit candle at the circle’s edge and recited similar words, entreating the spirits and elements of fire.

She continued on with another candle, this one facing west, calling on the spirits and element of earth, and closed her circle facing north, placing the last candle on the circle, calling on the air and its spirits, watchers, and whatnot. I’d never witnessed any sort of witchcraft in action before, and I have to admit the entire process was fascinating.