Once Bitten (Shadow Guild: The Rebel #1)(57)

He strode into the crowded little pub like he owned the place. Quinn stood behind the bar, along with Mac, who wiped down the gleaming wood with a cloth. My friends avoided the Devil’s gaze, looking at me instead from across the room.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asked.

“Did you get your target?” Mac set down the rag and leaned on the bar.

“Yes to both,” I said. “Mostly.”

I approached the bar, the Devil at my side.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Quinn said to him.

“You’re right. I should get out more.” The Devil’s words were dry.

“Update us, already,” Mac demanded.

I told them about the hired gun and the necromancer, then asked, “Do you have a piece of paper? We need to find a church, and I don’t recognize it from the vision I had. Maybe you will.”

Quinn nodded and disappeared to the back. He returned a moment later with a notepad and pencil and pushed them toward me.

I was a terrible artist, but I did my best to sketch the church from memory. I was most interested in capturing the curved walls and low, almost flat dome, which seemed like the most identifiable parts of the church.

My three companions leaned over the bar as I worked, watching the place come to life. I was painfully aware of the Devil at my side. There was a good half-meter between us, but the air between us tingled with something magical. My whole body was alive with awareness of him.

Finally, I finished and sat back, staring at the drawing. I blinked at it. Now that I’d drawn it all out… “I think I recognize it. Is that Temple Church near the Inns of Court?”

“I think it is,” Quinn said.

“But it’s a church for humans.” I said. It had been built in the twelfth century by the Knights Templar. “Would a necromancer really go there?”

“Some places are multi-use, yes,” the Devil said. “He would cast a spell to keep humans away, most likely. But there are many places in the human realm that are imbued with great magic. This is likely one of them.”

I stared at the picture. “And at midnight, he’s probably going to ritualistically murder our abducted person to create some kind of deadly magic.”

“I’ll see if Miranda can find out what kind of necromancy can be accomplished with a heart, a liver, and a living victim.”

Just the idea made me shudder, but I nodded.

“So what are we going to do?” Mac said. “Ambush the church?”

I looked at her gratefully. “You don’t have to come.”

“Of course I do. You need help, and you’re my friend.”

Warmth surged through me. “Thanks.”

“I’ll close down the pub,” Quinn said.

“Thank you.” I wasn’t going to refuse an any offer of help. A woman’s life was at stake, and I still needed vengeance for Beatrix.





At eleven p.m., we took up our places near Temple Church. The church sat in the middle of a small graveyard surrounded by tall buildings, the entire thing behind a gate that we’d had to climb over. The Devil and I stood in the shadows alongside Mac, Eve, and Quinn. Eve’s raven sat in a nearby tree. I touched the bag of potion bombs that Eve had given me, grateful for the magical backup.

The Devil had brought his own security, half a dozen shifters crouched in the shadows in human form. I’d briefly spotted Quinn chatting with them, and he’d fit in like a pea in a pod. There was a certain energy about him when he was with the pack that made his shifter qualities evident.

“I think I see someone coming.” The Devil murmured the words against my ear, and I shivered.

“Where?”

“To your right.”

I looked in the direction he indicated, spotting a couple walking down the street. They would have had to have come over the gate, too, so they definitely weren’t supposed to be there. I tucked myself deeper into the shadows to watch them approach. Two men, both of average height and looks.

“I think I recognize them,” Mac murmured. “A seer and a sorcerer from Guild City. They pass through the pub sometimes but rarely stop to drink.”

They reached the edge of the small graveyard and hesitated briefly. I squinted as I watched them, the full moon illuminating their movements. They gestured—a kind of circular movement with a flick at the end. The faintest flash of light appeared, and they stepped forward.

For a brief minute, the air around them turned a faint blue. Then they were on the other side of the barrier, and it disappeared.

“A magical shield,” Eve whispered. “Only supernaturals can enter the graveyard as long as it is up.”

“And only if they make that gesture,” Quinn said.

The figures were blurry now, the barrier seeming to make them almost invisible to the eye. Someone walking by probably wouldn’t notice them.

I strained my eyes, trying to glean any more clues about what was going on inside. We were only an hour from midnight, the most dangerous time for our victim. We didn’t want to rush in and scare off the necromancer and lose her, so we were trying to play it slow and careful.

It was making me antsy as hell, though.

“They’re putting something on,” Quinn murmured.

As I watched, the blurry figures swirled cloaks around their shoulders and pulled up the hoods.