city of dragons 03 - fire magic (27 page)

“Proof. Evidence. It would leave no doubt who killed Cooper. You want that proof, you get me out of this cell.”

“What do you mean, proof?” said Lachlan.

“I mean proof,” said Caleb. “That’s the deal. You get me out, I tell you what it is.”

Lachlan arched an eyebrow. “We’ll think about it.” And then he turned and started walking again, a smile playing on his lips.

When we were out of earshot, he turned to me, his smile widening. “Way to sell that, Penny. I almost believed you were a little jealous.”

“Sell that?” I said. “That what you were doing?”

He winked at me. “Not so bad at selling it myself, huh?”

“Lachlan, what the hell?” I was feeling unsettled and furious.

“Let’s get out of here. Guy makes my skin crawl.”

* * *

“How’s Brian?” I said to Connor.

It was dark, and we were gathered outside, next to the pool, which closed to the guests at 10:00. We had the place to ourselves, so that we could all talk. We were all there. Lachlan, Connor, Felicity, and even Jensen. Lachlan had said we should invite him, since what we were talking about was so dangerous. I didn’t see how it was any of his business. Besides, I’d never let anything happen to Felicity.

Connor sipped at a coffee. “I think Brian’s okay, under the circumstances. But he’s not great or anything. And you’d be proud of me, Penny, I’m just being his friend. Hands off.”

“Good,” I said.

“Of course, he says he’s not ready for anything, anyway,” said Connor. “Maybe after some time passes… But I don’t know. I mean, after what I did for him—what
we
did for him—it’s just it adds all these weird layers to everything. It’s too much pressure.”

“He could use a friend more than he could use a lover, I’m sure,” I said. “Be his friend, Connor.”

Lachlan cleared his throat. “Um, I’m glad for this update on Brian and all, but we do have more pressing things to discuss.”

“Right, we’re storming the Order, yeah?” said Felicity.

“We haven’t decided anything,” I said. “We wanted to get everybody together first. Because we can’t do this alone. And if you two aren’t on board—”

“And it’s fine if you’re not,” said Lachlan, “because it’s dangerous. We don’t know how exactly, but we know that Darla Tell has absorbed some of Alastair’s power and some of his personality as well. She’s also the head of an organization that siphons magic away from powerful, magical bad guys, so we can assume that all that power reaches an apex with her. Going up against her might be really stupid.”

“But if Caleb is right, and we can get proof, then we’ll be exonerated for the murder of Alastair,” I said.

“Can’t you just go to the police with what you know?” said Jensen. “Because I don’t really like the sound of this.”

“The police won’t believe them without proof,” said Felicity. “We have to help them. They’re having a baby.” She turned to Lachlan. “Congrats on finding out it’s yours, by the way.”

“Thanks,” said Lachlan, grinning.

“Wait. What?” said Jensen. “I thought he was a vampire.”

“We don’t know how that happened either,” I said. “Lots of weird magic stuff happening these days, and we don’t understand most of it.”

“The good news is that Penny and I have a blood bond,” said Lachlan, “so if it’s down to a fight between us and Darla, we might stand a chance.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I read all about blood bond couples in the past, and they were apparently crazy powerful.”

“Still,” said Felicity, “all you guys have figured out how to do is blow holes in buildings, right? Like when you destroyed the hotel?”

“We’re better at it now,” I said.

“Been practicing?” said Felicity.

“Sort of,” I said. The truth was that we had to share blood to charge up the power, and Lachlan had been hesitant to drink from me since I was pregnant. He didn’t want to weaken me in any way.

“So, our assets are the blood bond,” said Connor. “Anything else?”

Lachlan and I exchanged a glance. Neither of us said anything.

“Okay,” said Connor.

“This is a bad idea,” said Jensen. “I know you two want to clear your names, but—”

“We can do this,” said Felicity. “Connor and I actually have been practicing our magic, right?”

“Yeah, we’re pretty boss if I do say so myself,” said Connor, offering his fist to Felicity.

She bumped it. “Hells yeah.”

Connor grinned at me. “We’re in.” He drank some more coffee.

“You can’t speak for Felicity,” said Jensen.

“Neither can you,” said Felicity to him. “And, babe, honestly, I’d rather if you weren’t involved in this. You don’t have any magic at all. You never drink dragon blood, so you’d just be there and I’d be worried about you—”

“I heal,” said Jensen. “I’m pretty hard to kill.”

“Well, so am I,” said Felicity.

“None of us are easy to kill,” said Connor.

“We can use Jensen,” said Lachlan. “And trust me, I know how you feel. If there was some way I could keep Penny out of this—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” I said.

Lachlan shrugged at Jensen.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

We didn’t figure we’d be able to simply walk through the front door of the Order again, not after the way we’d left things with Darla, and after knocking out Sid and talking to Caleb and all of that.

And we couldn’t send Felicity or Connor in, because Darla knew who they were as well.

So, it turned out that Jensen was helpful after all.

We sent him to the front door and told him to pretend to be a food delivery guy, complete with bags of food from a local restaurant

Once inside, he’d need to get to the back door the actual delivery guy had told us about and let us in.

That was where we were waiting.

Connor was nervously toying with his talisman.

Felicity kept putting her hair in a ponytail, and then taking it out and putting it back up again, as if she wasn’t satisfied with how she’d put it up the last time.

Lachlan seemed cool and comfortable, but then he almost always did.

I just wanted this over.

“How long has it been?” said Felicity. “He should have been here by now.”

“Not long,” I said. “Give him time. He might have had to talk himself out of something.”

“Maybe they could tell right away that he wasn’t what he said he was,” said Felicity. “Maybe they can sense stuff like that in the Order. They’re all really powerful, right?”

“We don’t really know how it works,” said Lachlan. “But you should try not to worry. He’ll be here.”

“Oh, God, if something happens to him…” Felicity took her ponytail out again. “He was right. This is a bad idea. I mean, trying to break a serial killer out of a magical prison? That’s crazy.”

Connor patted her on the shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. We can do this.”

“Oh, who are we kidding?” she said, smoothing her hair together at the top of her head. “We’re in way over our heads. And now Jensen’s probably being killed or tortured or something.”

“Try to breathe,” I said.

“I shouldn’t have let him be part of this,” said Felicity. “I should
never
have let him.”

“Think of something else,” said Connor. “Think about all those things you were wanting to ask Penny about the baby shower.”

“I can’t think about a baby shower at a time like this!” said Felicity.

“Baby shower?” I said. “I don’t need a baby shower.”

“You’re having a shower,” said Felicity, glaring at me. “I’ve already starting planning it, and I bought a bunch of candy, so you’re having it. That’s that.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, fine. We’re having a shower. Sorry.”

“I only wanted to ask you about games and things,” said Felicity. “I think they’re hokey and stupid, but I thought maybe you might like doing them, and we need to do something during the shower, since we can’t drink.”

“You guys could drink,” I said. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind.”

“And do you want it to be co-ed or not?” said Connor.

“Well, I want you there,” I said to him. “But aren’t baby showers only for women?” I had stopped going to them after my first miscarriage. It was too painful to watch hopeful, happy pregnant women.

“They can be for men now too,” said Felicity. “We could have a baby shower barbecue, where it’s men and women and burgers on the grill and then you open all your presents and there are no games.”

“Okay,” I said. “I guess that’s fine, but who are you even going to invite to this thing?”

“Well, there are people,” said Felicity. “There’s us, for one thing. And there’s Ophelia.”

“Yeah,” I said. But I couldn’t think of anyone else.

“I was going to invite Darla Tell before we found out she was psychotic,” said Felicity.

And then the door opened. Jensen’s eyes were wide. “Oh, God,
this
is the door. I was on the other side of the god damned building.”

Felicity turned and threw her arms around him. “Jensen, baby, you’re okay!”

Jensen hugged her back, bewildered. “I’m fine. I just got lost is all.”

“Don’t do that!” said Felicity.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Connor cleared his throat.

Felicity let go of Jensen and they moved out of the doorway.

We pushed inside through the door, and Lachlan closed it behind us. We’d come in to a long hallway, lit by overhead drop lighting. The floor was covered in an ornate, antique rug that ran the length of the hallway. The walls were painted gray. It was as if we’d stepped into a different century.

Lachlan and I took the lead.

“Come on,” said Lachlan. “There’s a stairwell up here. It’ll be less conspicuous than taking the elevator.”

“You’d think a place like this would have more security,” said Jensen.

“Yeah, I get the impression they’re very arrogant,” said Lachlan. “They think their magic is so strong that it protects them from anything.”

“Honestly, they might not really care,” I said. “If Darla’s corrupt, maybe the whole institution is as well. Maybe they simply collect prisoners to amass power. So keeping people out might not really be a priority.”

“You think they’d steal our magic?” said Felicity. “I mean, not that it would be that hard. You just take off my talisman.”

“All magical creatures have some magic just in their existence,” I said. “That’s what keeps you alive now, even though you technically died.”

“Right,” said Felicity. “But if they took that magic, would it kill me?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Don’t worry, though. We aren’t going to let them try.”

“Stairwell,” said Lachlan, coming to a halt in front of it. He tugged the door open and gestured. “After you.”

I hurried inside and started up the steps. The stairs looked as if they had been carved from stone. It was like climbing a staircase in an ancient castle or something. The outside of this place really didn’t match the inside. It was almost as if they’d put this relic of a building inside the warehouse. But was a thing like that even possible? How much magic would it take to pick up a building and move it? Across the ocean, even? And without anyone noticing?

Maybe if you were really powerful, you could compel all the people who saw it to forget, but compulsion usually wore off when people weren’t the presence of the one who had compelled them.

Of course, Alastair had been powerful enough to break the compulsion rules. Maybe Darla was as well.

We climbed the steps to the second level, none of us speaking.

When we arrived there, I slowly eased the door open to look outside. I peered out into the hallway, which was nearly identical to the one downstairs. It was empty. “Coast is clear,” I said.

We started to move forward.

Movement out of the corner of my eye.

I froze.

Lachlan ran into the back of me.

“Shh,” I said, easing back inside the door. Two women were coming down the hall. I’d never seen them before, but they were dressed in pantsuits. They looked official. They were chattering to each other in some other language. It sounded European.

I waited until I could no longer hear them speaking.

Then I pushed the door open a crack to look out again.

I watched the hallway. Empty.

I waited.

Still empty.

“Okay,” I murmured. “Let’s try this again.”

We all eased out way out into the hallway. Lachlan and I took the lead again, since we knew our way around this floor. The hallway branched off, and we took the left fork, heading for the prison wing where Caleb was kept.

When we entered Sid’s area, he was reading a book at his desk.

We came in quietly.

Sid looked up. He leaped to his feet, clutched his talisman with one hand, and gestured with his other hand.

We all toppled backward, knocking into each other like bowling pins.

“This the guy?” said Connor, grunting.

“Keep him busy,” said Lachlan, crawling on his knees.

I went with him.

Behind us, Felicity struggled to her feet. She unleashed her magic on Sid, picking him up and tossing him behind his desk.

He landed on the floor with a groan.

Lachlan and I crawled past Sid’s desk, leaving Felicity and Connor to fight off Sid.

Once we were into the hallway that led to Caleb’s cell, we got to our feet and walked.

I was nervous. We’d talked this through, and we assumed that Caleb would have no magic whatsoever, because it had been drained from him by the Order. Without use of the bars, we thought he’d be containable. We’d be more powerful than he was.

But we were taking a big risk. It was possible that Caleb was lying to us about everything, and that doing this was going to backfire.

We had to try.

It was dark in the cell block.

There was no noise from within Caleb’s cell, and we couldn’t see him.

Lachlan approached the bars. “Caleb?” he called in a low voice.

Nothing.

“What if they moved him?” I whispered. “What if they figured we might come back and try to get him out and they decided to stop us before we could?”