Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(43)

“You would if you’d just concentrate when you start fading.”

“Like I need to be stressed out over anything at this point in my life? I am dead, dammit.”

“Yeah, and if you don’t get me the info I need, you’ll be even deader.”

He laughed. “Like you’d ever do me that way.” He guzzled the last of the booze before he faded out and the bottle tumbled to the ground.

Evalle felt a tingle run down her spine. Something in the air wasn’t right, but she didn’t know what it was.

The stone has been found.

She had no idea whose voice that was. Yet it’d been crystal. She shook her head to clear it. Was that a witch messing with her?

Or a warning sent by Grady?

She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. She had to do what she had to do. Turning around, she headed back to her bike so that she could go to the last place she wanted to.

May Macha have mercy on her, because Deek would not.





ELEVEN




Evalle rode fast to the Iron Casket in a quick downpour that knocked a couple degrees off the hideous temperature but did nothing to beat down her concern over Kardos and the possible danger he might be in.

Over and over, she saw him being bludgeoned or worse if one of the staff had discovered him in the club. There were so many hideous things that could be done by ancient beings to a young person, especially an untrained male witch.

Just thinking about it made her blood run cold.

She parked her bike in a half-filled parking lot and turned off the engine. She couldn’t believe she was about to head into Deek D’Alimonte’s territory alone. An immortal centaur who could morph into a human, Deek owned the Iron Casket and was without a doubt one of the nastiest creatures who’d ever lived. No one knew why really. He just hated the entire universe.

I am courting death here.

There was serious bad history between the Beladors and Deek. He had no patience for any of their kind, and if he saw her inside, there would be a brawl.

Just don’t let me get arrested.

All she had to do was retrieve one pain-in-the-ass male witch before Deek saw her. Dame Fortune, don’t be on vacation tonight. ’Cause she was about to need her badly.

Evalle quickly scanned the area, looking for threats. Whoever was seeking her probably had even more demons gunning for her. Every shadow could hide an assassin or demon whose only mission was to take her unawares.

Rule Number One: Stay Vigilant.

She put on her sunglasses and checked the back pocket of her jeans for cash.

Kardos was so going to pay her back for the cover charge. Little snot. She headed for the entrance. The rain was fading. Droplets clung to her vintage BDU shirt. Not as stylish as most of Deek’s clientele. But that was all right. She wasn’t here with the same intent as the rest of the patrons, looking for a victim or a lay. She was here to beat sense into one severely testosterone-poisoned idiot.

Deek’s warehouse had multifaceted panels of slanted black and silver covering the entire outside. Panels that gleamed in the rain. In full sun, she’d bet this place flashed like a polished black diamond.

Deek had turned the inside into a showcase of black marble and glitter intended to lure a Fae to the sparkle like a werewolf to fresh meat. Then the ever surly Deek had forbidden any Fae to tread here. If any were dumb enough to do so, it invited a major ass-whipping.

Next on his kicking list—a male witch not yet twenty-one.

The real question was, how had Kardos gotten past the two bouncers who looked like Goth gargoyles standing outside the door? She hoped the teenager hadn’t used majik to gain access, because Deek would kill anyone who used majik in his place.

Anyone.

Even more frightening, she couldn’t see any way Kardos would have gotten past those two guards without majik.

As she neared the front door, the dull staccato of throbbing music vibrated through her. She smiled at the first of the two black-swathed mountains she reached. “Any chance I could go in for five minutes without paying? Just got to find somebody, then I’ll be right back out?”

He lifted an eyebrow in amusement. “Any chance we can spend a night at your house?”

“When the devil sits on icicles.” She handed him the ten dollars and let him stamp the inside of her wrist.

When he opened the door, the music charged forward, slapping her body and ears. Not a packed house, but enough gyrating bodies and clusters of groups moving through the three levels that she’d have to poke around to find her target.

Unless Kardos had left.

Rushing through the crowd, Evalle covered the downstairs in a matter of minutes and was just taking the first step to go up to the second level when the music ended. She glanced across the room just in time to catch a bright flash of familiar blond hair moving through the room.

Kardos snaked his way off the dance floor and into the hovering crowd that swallowed him.

Or had he seen her and taken off?

She spun around and plowed through warm bodies smelling of silky cologne and sweat to reach the other side of the room just as Kardos zipped through the rear exit. How had he gotten past the bouncer at the back door, who was carrying on a conversation with a patron?

Deek killed unobservant bouncers. Crap. Kardos was definitely using majik.

Flaming moron.

“Hey!” The bouncer stopped her. Now he decided to be alert? “No one leaves through the back door and that means you, baby. The bathroom’s upstairs. The front door is on the opposite end.”