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This time, a massacred owl lay unceremoniously discarded in the center of the loveseat. Blood was splattered all over, as if the bird had actually only been wounded when it had been dragged into the space, and brutally slain on-site. It was horrible. In some ways, even if only psychologically, the sight was so much worse than any of the unpleasant visions Sienna could remember.
Her stomach rolled and she turned her head, needing a few seconds to get herself under control.
Fenn rested a hand on her back and rubbed gently. “I can clean this up,” he said. “But is there any significance here beyond the space itself?”
Her brain was spinning in too many directions. She latched on to the first thing she could and quietly asked, “You … can?”
He pulled her head into his shoulder, allowing her to lean on him. “It’s a death scene,” he said. “That which is directly relevant, until it becomes contaminated, I can manipulate.”
A thought popped into her head, followed quickly by another. “You could totally create zombies.”
This time he chuckled, briefly. “I probably could.”
Sienna eased back enough to blink up at him. “You don’t know?”
He offered her a twitch of his lips. “Never tried.”
She supposed she appreciated that, from the perspective of a living human being. And somehow the moment of banter had cleared her head, she realized. “Piper,” she said, “her favorite birds are owls.” She nearly turned to look at the corpse of the poor creature before she caught herself. She swallowed hard. “Is there … anything else? Here, I mean?”
Fenn shook his head. “Nothing of note. I believe the bird itself was the message.”
He didn’t have to spell it out. Their enemy was taunting them. Making it clear that they knew more than they should, and could get in and out of places they shouldn’t be able. Which in turn made Sienna all the more grateful for having left Rajan at the house with Maya. Something about the man inspired her trust.
Another thought rushed in on the heels of that reflection. Maya had working security cameras in her store. Not throughout, but over the register area and over the reading area—just to make sure no one thought to walk off with a book or three in their purse. It was a problem their mother had had sporadically, because even cutesy small towns had their crime.
Sienna looked up at Fenn again. “Can you deal with—” She gestured as bile briefly bubbled up her throat. “I happen to know how to access Maya’s security system. I want to see if this asshole’s on camera.” She’d practically set the system up for her sister, so she could definitely get back into it.
Fenn’s brow furrowed. “This will only take me a few seconds.”
She knew he was trying to gently disagree with the idea of her leaving his side, but she didn’t have to leave the building and she had no interest in lingering around the massacre. “Then I’ll barely have time to miss you.” She threw in a wink in an effort to lighten the mood and extracted herself from his grip.
The side-room that housed the security system, and some other things, was not off the main aisle, so Sienna didn’t have to worry about walking through a blood trail she could hardly see. She thought about pulling out her phone to use as a flashlight, but reminded herself she was a grown woman who knew that store as well as she knew any other building, and she had no need to be afraid of the dark. If there was any so-called creature of darkness to fear, most people would say it was the one she’d spent the majority of the previous night wrapped around.
The man she was going to rewardthoroughlyjust as soon as her sisters were both safely home. And she’d maybe had like five hours’ sleep.
There it is.She grabbed hold of the pocket door that hid the closet-sized space at the same time as she felt the air around her stir.
Cool lips grazed her ear as a presence came into existence literally up against her. “You’re a hard woman to getalone.”
Her heart slammed in her chest and Sienna opened her mouth to scream even before she registered the hands that latched on to her. In her peripheral vision, she thought she saw the darkness move. But then the air ripped past her, drying out her eyes as if she were moving too fast through open space.
It was over as fast as it began and the firm grip that had hauled her up tossed her away, letting her land hard on her knees and elbows. Cold, unforgiving concrete caught her, nearly breaking her nose from her landing.
She couldn’t make sense of it. What had just happened?
The breath rushed from him as Sienna disappeared in the arms of a man he didn’t know. He barely caught a clear enough glimpse to identify brown hair on his foe before the pair were gone in a sudden gust of wind.
What thehellhad just happened?
Fenn growled, letting his anger out in rippling waves. The owl hadn’t been a warning. It’d been bait. He never should have allowed her to step from his reach. That bastard wouldn’t have dared come for her if Fenn had kept hold of her. Because despite what he’d said on the phone, his actions proved at least one thing—this stranger still feared Death.
As well he should.
As attuned to Sienna as Fenn was, however, he couldn’t immediately pinpoint her. It seemed unlikely that their unnamed enemy, or even Florence, had set up some sort of barrier. And in turn that forced Fenn to wonder how far she could already have been taken? Even among the gods, true teleportation was not a common feat.
His mind replayed that last moment, when Sienna’s mouth had opened as if to scream, her eyes already wide in shock. Another man’s hands on her body. The way they’d promptly vanished, as if sucked away by a gale that should not have been.No.The wind hadn’t taken them, it was a byproduct of their movement.
Fenn slipped from the store and took himself to the roof of the tallest building in town. Walking the streets would only end in unnecessary bloodshed.
