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“True. Go. Amaya and I have to prepare ourselves for our meeting with the sorceress.”
Her laughter faded, but she didn’t say anything, just turned and ran for the Brindle. I had a suspicion she didn’t want me to see her fear. Or her tears.
I waited until she’d disappeared inside and the Brindle’s grand old doors had closed once more against the night, then drew Amaya. Lilac flames rippled down the sides of her shadowed blade, and her expectant, excited hum began to roll across the outer edges of my mind.
“Let’s get this party started,” I said, voice grim. “Amaya, become one with me.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the lilac fire exploded, becoming a minifireball as power surged across the night, the steel, and me with equal ferocity. It was a storm that tore my core apart, then pieced me back together, all within a heartbeat.
Only it was no longer just me in this body, but we.
Amaya was once again within me, sharing my flesh and my thoughts, even as we shared powers and abilities. It was a strange, unsettling sensation, but one I was more than happy to put up with if it saved both my butt and Azriel’s.
I called to the Aedh. The magic’s response was both swifter and more powerful than ever before, and I couldn’t help wondering whether the union with a demon spirit had amplified its power. In particle form, we turned and headed for the warehouse as fast as possible. The night blurred around us, and the headlights of the cars and trucks on the streets below were little more than bright streaks of light.
It didn’t take us long to reach the old defense site in Maribyrnong, where the second of Lauren’s warehouses was located. There were several other similarly old warehouses located along the same section of road, all of them little more than large concrete boxes. There were no cars in this immediate area, and there didn’t seem to be anyone moving about.
Which didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone here.
Azriel was, for starters. Ilianna’s finding spells were never wrong, and I seriously doubted Lauren would have been able to move him in the brief time it had taken me to get here. Besides, it took almost as much time and effort to dismantle spells as it did to create them. She’d hardly have set this place up as a trap, then flee the minute I didn’t step into it precisely how she’d planned.
We did a quick circle around the building. It was a two-story structure, with small, evenly spaced windows lining both levels. The bottom ones were protected by metal bars, but not the top. I couldn’t see anything unusual or out of place, nor could I feel any sort of magic. But I had no doubt that it was here.
We arrowed closer. Tension rolled through us—mine more fear based, Amaya’s filled with the need to rent and tear and consume. She really was a bloodthirsty little demon.
Is, she said, her voice echoing weirdly through the mass that was the two of us, what demons meant to do.
I guessed it was—and it wasn’t like I could complain given that very bloodthirstiness had saved my backside more than once.
As we drew close enough to look through some of the windows, energy began to flicker across my particles. Its touch was unclean but powerful, and warning enough that magic was active here. But what, exactly, it was set to do was undoubtedly the question we would soon find an answer to.
I spun around and headed for the rear of the building. When Jak and I had come here, we’d gotten into the warehouse through a window left partially open at the back of the building. We’d left it as we’d found it, so unless Lauren had discovered it was open, it might still be possible to get in that way. If the magic didn’t stop us, that was.
The window was still open. I hesitated, then cursed myself for doing so and slipped in through the small gap. Energy crawled across me, pinpricks of power that nipped and stung my particles, but they didn’t impede our entry in any way.
But maybe that wasn’t the intent behind the magic. Maybe it was nothing more than an early warning system. If it was, then Lauren would now undoubtedly be aware of my presence, and that meant I had to be more cautious.
I looked around. This room hadn’t changed
any since the last time I was here. Metal shelving lined the walls, but there was little else except dust. I scooted under the small gap between the door and the concrete floor, then checked out the various rooms on this upper level—all of which were still empty—before making my way downstairs.
The foul bite of magic got stronger. Amaya hissed in annoyance, the sound grating as it echoed through our joined beings. I ignored it and swept around the room, trying to see what traps—if any—Lauren might have left here. Again, there was nothing to see but dust, and it was only the magic that nipped at our particles that told me anything had changed since the last time we were here. There were certainly no obvious signs of magic—no black candles, pentagrams, or other magical accoutrements, and certainly no conventional types of security, like cameras, guards, or demons.
But then, most of the other times we’d been attacked by some form of demon, they hadn’t actually appeared until we’d gained flesh form.
I did another run around the inside perimeter, just to be certain I hadn’t missed anything obvious—and given my current state of tiredness, that was certainly a possibility. But other than the furniture remnants left in offices that lined the street side of the building, this place was a vast, empty space. Which left only the stairs—or rather, the hole Azriel had created under them when we’d raided this place and discovered the tunnels and caverns our sorceress had created beneath the building.
That was where Lauren was.
That was where Azriel was.
And it was undoubtedly also where any trap would be.
But it wasn’t like I had any other choice. Not if I wanted to save Azriel and kill the bitch who held him.
We one, Amaya said. Magic not stick.
I hope like hell you’re right, my friend, because otherwise we could be in trouble.
