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Chapter Twelve
Blake
The next morning, I get a report back from my men about the Night Guild’s spy. He’d woken up, thought he drank too much, and then contacted his employer to report that he couldn’t find anything.
“Follow him until he leaves the country,” I say to the man on the phone, and then I hang up.
I know we haven’t heard the last from the Night Guild, but this should buy us a bit of time. Get them away from here, so I can take the fight to them. I have my contacts working on the location of the Night Guild headquarters. Which, of course, isn’t exactly easy when the leaders keep their identities a secret.
I could ask Tamsin for more details. Surely, she has to know more. Some detail that could help, even if she doesn’t realize it. But I don’t want to bring her into this until I have to. I know she’s going to argue with me about it, try to get me not to go after them.
And there’s no way in burning hell that’s going to happen.
I’m going to hunt those motherfuckers down, and they’re going to regret the day they crossed paths with the Blackstocks.
My phone rings again, but this time it’s not one of my warlocks. It’s an old friend of mine who lives in Costa Rica, a magical import/export dealer like me.
“Fitzgerald,” I say. “How’s it going?”
“Well, it would be perfectly lovely if you hadn’t texted asking me about the Night Guild,” Fitzgerald says, his accent making him sound like an English professor instead of the horned demon he is in actuality. “This is the second time this month I’ve gotten tangled in their business, and it’s really dampening my spirits, old chap.”
“Second time?”
“This doesn’t by chance have to do with a young lady named Luciana, does it?” Fitz asks.
I’m only mildly surprised. Fitz is very well connected and usually knows all the latest supernatural gossip. “It does. Her sister Tamsin brought her here to Scotland. They’re my neighbors, we grew up together.”
“It’s a small world, isn’t it?” the demon says, his tone coming across the line wistfully. “I’ll tell you what I know, though my friends Ryder and Ven know more. They’re the ones who helped Tamsin and Luciana escape the Night Guild.”
I wait as Fitz pauses.
“You see, my old friend Ryder met Ven, who’s a witch, and she’s friends with Luciana and went looking for her after she went missing. They ended up running into Tamsin at this secret facility in the jungle—regrettably close to my home, I might add—and they all just barely escaped.” Fitz sighs, and I can almost picture him wringing his hands. “Afterward, I helped Tamsin with some travel plans, but she was very secretive about her final destination. She thought it best that no one knew.”
Now it’s my turn to sigh. Sounds like Tamsin. Always going it alone.
Fitz tells me everything that Ven and Ryder found in the lab in Costa Rica. When he finishes, he says, “You really don’t want to get mixed up with the Night Guild, Blake. They’re rather dreadful.”
I grind my teeth together. “I don’t know that I have much of a choice. They’ve already come here once looking for Tamsin.”
Fitz makes a noise of dismay, something between a squeak and an exclamation. “Ven and Ryder told me they barely escaped with their lives. They had a run-in with one of the leaders of the Night Guild.”
This does surprise me. “They met them? Who are they?”
“They met one of the leaders. There’s at least one other.” Fitz pauses again, drawing in a shaky breath. “The one they met was Darkness herself.”
I can feel my brow wrinkle. “Darkness? What do you mean?”
“She’s not a goddess exactly,” Fitz begins slowly. “She is a being of higher power. She has existed since the dawn of time. She is night and shadow. She is the despair one feels when they’re at their lowest points in life.”
My chest tightens as Fitz speaks. That’s the creature who leads the Night Guild? Things just got about a thousand times worse.
“How on earth did your friends escape such a creature?” I ask.
“Darkness preys upon fear and hopelessness,” Fitz says. “They presented a united front, and their magic and light drove her away. Only temporarily.”
I shake my head. “And you say she’s only one of the leaders of the Night Guild? Who are the others?”
“That I don’t know,” Fitz responds. “I’ve been trying to find out. I’ve perhaps become a bit obsessed with it, if I’m being honest… but so far, nothing has panned out.”
