Wicked Flames (Solsti Prophecy) (2 page)

Phobos went to stand up and slipped, falling on his ass. “What the—” he grunted. “There wasn’t any snow last time.”

Xavier rolled his eyes. “You’ve seen snow before, dipshit.”

“Yeah, but we never came through a portal and landed in it.” The troll stood up, unsteady on his massive gnarled feet. He wobbled to the side and almost went down again before righting himself. The backpack that dangled from one shoulder slipped to the ground, falling with its unzipped side down. In the blink of an eye, a glass vial shot out and whirled end-over-end in the dark air.

“Shit!” Deimos, the other troll, made an awkward grab from his sprawl on the snow. His large cracked hands whooshed through the air just above the vial’s trajectory.

In a slow-motion arc that none of them could stop, it dropped like a silent missile into the white. The red plastic top popped off. Black, precious liquid spilled out, an ink-blot design on the frozen ground.

Xavier cursed loudly. “Damn you both!” Why Elegia couldn’t find more competent couriers was beyond him. This delivery was priceless.

The vials contained a beautiful, potent liquid extract taken from a rare black lily that didn’t grow on Earth. It didn’t grow on their home realm of Torth either. No realm’s environment had been able to sustain the plant after a war had ravaged its original home on Evena. After decades of attempted growth, it had been given up for a lost cause.

Given up by all except one. Elegia, single minded in her brilliant focus, had done it. Only a handful knew of her accomplishment. And with her experiments on supernatural subjects complete, she was ready to extend the extract’s hold to Earth.

Xavier righted the backpack and picked it up, grabbing the empty vial before he straightened. “This is the last time! She’s gonna hear about this.” He shook the vial in Phobos’s face. “I need every drop.”

Deimos shrugged out of his backpack and handed it to Xavier, who snatched it with a glare. Xavier rummaged inside, reaching beneath additional vials of extract, and found…

Yes! This has to be the amulet.
He held up a chain with a single charm dangling from its length. It resembled a coin.

“She got the witch to do it.” At least one thing had gone right tonight.

He needed a better way to communicate with his leader. Computers and phones didn’t work realm-to-realm, but Elegia had a few witches under her command. They made transportation amulets and, if this thing worked, an inter-realm communication amulet as well. They also created cloaking amulets. His attention dropped to the trolls.
Too bad nothing can cover their rotten stench.

“Hope you can get back home without fucking that up,” he muttered, as Phobos recited the words that would open the portal once again. The shimmering oval window appeared.

Phobos glanced at Deimos and then at Xavier. “Uh, sorry about the—”

“Go. Now, before anyone smells you.” Xavier waved the air, irritated, and the two trolls disappeared.

He blew out a breath and turned back toward the treatment plant, glowing like a beacon across the white field. His first order of business would be to test that communication amulet. Elegia needed to know what sorry-asses her trolls were.

Checking his watch, he noted that the plant’s guard would be at the opposite end of the facility now, with his damn mutt
.
The German Shepherd’s nose was good, but not as good as a demon’s. Xavier had ten minutes to get inside. An easy feat, and preferable to making up a reason why he was strolling around the edge of the plant in the middle of the night. The less talking he did with humans, the happier he’d be.

C
HAPTER
2

M
ATHIAS
HIT
THE
BLUE
MATS
with a thud as a knee jammed into his throat. His lungs fought for breath that wouldn’t come. He tapped his comrade’s leg twice, and Rhys stood up.

“Nice moves.” Mathias sprang to his feet. “Let’s go again.”

The two circled in the training room as AC/DC blasted from the speakers. Mathias moved first, aiming a kick at Rhys’s solar plexus, but missing on purpose. His trick caught the other demon off-guard, allowing Mathias to dart behind him. In a flash of movement, he reached for Rhys to collar him in a choke hold.

Rhys ducked, shifting his center of gravity in the nick of time. He whipped around toward Mathias’s exposed abdomen. Anticipating the hit, Mathias brought his knee up hard. Rhys’s jaw cracked loudly and his head snapped back.

Mathias lunged, grabbing his friend’s shoulder and turning him as he took him down.

Face down on the mat, Rhys muttered, “Shit. For an old man, you still got it.”

“Call me old again and you’re gonna feel this tomorrow.” Mathias twisted Rhys’s arm behind his back.

“Fine. You’re
distinguished.
”

“Rilan’s distinguished.” Mathias backed off and Rhys sat up.

“Yeah, yeah.” Rhys crossed the room to grab his water bottle and took a long swig. He stopped short of draining the bottle and dumped the last of it over his dark brown buzzed hair. “You still got two centuries on me.”

Mathias rubbed a towel over his face. “It’s gotta be at least a hundred years since you and I worked together.”

“Fighting those dark elves on Torth.”

“Bastards,” Mathias grumbled. “Your moves have gotten better.”

“Thanks. I’ve been training a lot with Kai.”

“He’s good. He barely needed my help on that last job.”
Yeah, being forced to survive as a gladiator slave tended to make a guy into a pretty vicious fighter.

“That’s because Brooke saved his ass.” Rhys tossed a water bottle to Mathias. “Speaking of the Solsti,” he drawled. “You ready for the little firestarter?”

Mathias stifled a laugh. “I think she’d singe your ass for that comment.”

“From what I hear, if you can get her to do that, you’ve made progress.”

Mathias blew out a breath and nodded. At least she knew she wasn’t human. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks that her sisters had already handled that one.

“I’ve met her on video chats. She talks to the girls all the time. She’s cute,” Rhys said.

Mathias snorted. “I don’t care what she looks like. She needs to get with the program.”

“Get with the program?” A rolling laugh shook Rhys’s shoulders and he leaned forward, bracing his hands on his thighs. “Shit, man, you really drew the short straw. I’ve met her online, and only online. You know why? Because she wants nothing to do with our world. Nada. She won’t even come for a visit.”

Mathias chucked his towel across the room, where it landed in a plastic hamper. “Thanks for the encouragement, dick.”

“I’m just sayin’, you’ve been warned. She hasn’t even met her sisters’ mates in person. Says she knows enough demons down at University of Illinois. Probably just a bunch of whiny-ass frat boys.” Rhys cracked open a fresh water bottle. “That girl wouldn’t know a demon if one bit her pretty little neck.”

Mathias’s eyes snapped to his friend. If Rhys’s words were true, then Ria was doing her job. Glued to Gin’s side, subtly steering her away from any other supernatural creatures they may encounter, and protecting her life no matter what.
Sounds like it hasn’t come to that, thank the gods.

Not that he’d ever doubt Ria’s skills. She had a knack for fitting into any situation, whether it required finesse or rough-and-tumble. But handling Gin Bonham might prove to be their trickiest assignment in years.

“Let’s eat.” The two Watchers walked out into a hallway and up the stairs from the basement training room. The house was old and huge, but offered every modern convenience. Passing into the kitchen, a sweet familiar scent enticed Mathias’s nose.

“S’ up, girls?” Rhys grinned at the two women standing at the granite topped island.

“Oh good, you guys can be the judges,” Nicole said.

“Judges?” Mathias asked. “Do I want to know?”

“We’re having a sisterly competition to see who can heat their hot chocolate faster. Solsti style,” Brooke answered.

Kai burst into the room. “Whew! Is every appliance turned on in here? You girls cooking? Baking? Smells sweet. Must be you.” He wrapped Brooke in his arms and kissed her mouth.

In the wake of Kai came a shorter Lash demon. Rilan. The others truly didn’t know how old he was. He was one of the Elders, a walking encyclopedia of immortal creatures, legends, and facts. His wavy brown hair frizzed in the humid kitchen as he took in the scene. “Good. You’re all here. Let’s move to the great room, shall we?”

“Okay.” Nicole stopped pouring milk into a pan on the stove. “We can do this later.”

Mathias looked at Rhys, who only shrugged. They filed out of the kitchen to the high-ceilinged great room, where Gunnar and Brenin sat locked in concentration, playing Halo on the well-used Xbox.

“Some of those little purple aliens look harmless,” Nicole murmured, sliding onto Gunnar’s lap.

The black-haired demon pressed pause, dropped his controller and kissed her. “Small but deadly, love.”

Rilan plunked himself in a large armchair by the fireplace and didn’t wait for everyone to get settled. “We’ve got visitors.”

“What kind of visitors? Here at the house, or here…on Earth?” Nicole asked. Her voice rose on the last word and she exchanged a look with her sister that wasn’t lost on Mathias. Those two had absorbed a lot of information in a few months’ time.

Rilan waved a hand in a circular motion in front of him. “The Chicago metropolitan area. There’s been unusual portal activity all across the suburbs. I can identify the trace magic of portals opening, but whoever is coming through is masking their scent.”
 

“You have no idea who it is?” Brooke asked.

“Or
what
it is,” Nicole muttered under her breath. Of course, every demon could hear her perfectly, due to enhanced hearing.

“No. I can sense when the portal opens and closes. But there’s no essence of the travelers. Whoever comes through is cloaking themselves,” Rilan said.

“Is that hard to do?” Nicole asked.

“Not necessarily.” The elder shook his head. “Some have an innate ability for it. And witches can create cloaking amulets.”

“I hope it’s not Neshi demons.” Brooke shuddered.

Mathias glanced at the brunette Solsti. He’d heard about her up-close-and–personal encounter with one of the beasts a few months ago. With four arms and rows of razor teeth, her reaction to the Neshi was more than understandable.

“You got locations of the portal energy bursts?” Rhys asked, walking to the bank of three computers at one end of the room.

As the Elder rattled off names of several towns near Chicago, Rhys’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Shit, man.” He leaned forward to peer at his screen. “Guess what all these ‘burbs have in common? They all have water treatment facilities.”

“Where was the most recent visit?” Mathias walked over to Rhys and peered at the screen.

“The most recent energy discharge was within a few miles of here,” Rilan said.

Rhys’s fingers tapped a staccato beat on the desk. “That would have to be North Chicago. There’s a treatment plant there.”

Mathias rubbed his hands together. Sparring and stalking equaled a perfect night. The only thing missing was a pair of sweet female thighs. But that would have to wait. It didn’t matter if the portal-traveling creature cloaked itself—Mathias could still track it. “What do you say, boys? I don’t have to head downstate until tomorrow. You got me here for the night. Let’s check it out.”

“Fuck yeah,” Rhys drawled.

Rilan nodded, a genuine smile on his face. “Yes, we’re lucky to have Mathias with us. Gunnar and Brenin, you stay here and run your usual patrols in the city. Kai, Rhys, and Mathias can go.”

“Let’s move.” Mathias stood and headed for the kitchen where the rear door would lead them to the demons’ vehicles.

Rhys hopped over an armchair to follow on his heels. “You are
not
driving, man. Here in the good ole US of A, cars need to follow rules. Unlike whatever country your last assignment was in.”

“It was Brazil, and the road rules were optional.” Mathias grabbed a set of keys from a row of hooks on the wall. “Anyway, a cop won’t remember what he can’t remember, right?” He tossed the keys to Rhys.

Kai jogged into the kitchen. “Sweet. Gotta give the Hunter props. I’ve seen him scrub memories and he’s
smooth
.”

“Christ, enough with the fairy dust.” Rhys grabbed a leather jacket and headed out to a black Escalade.

“You take him down on the mats or something?” Kai handed Mathias a leather coat and shrugged into one of his own.

“You know it.” Mathias stepped out into the December night and zipped up the borrowed, yet perfectly-fitting coat. Watcher homes always had extra clothes, sized for warriors.

Kai laughed as they piled into the SUV. “Good to have you here, man.”

With Rhys behind the wheel, the car hurtled north past a blur of lights. So much for rules of the road. Rhys had reduced a twenty-minute trip to ten.

They parked a half mile from the water treatment plant and went in on foot through thick pines. Before leaving the cover of the trees, they spotted a six-foot-tall chain-link fence ringing the perimeter. A security guard and a German Shepherd walked past a metal gate, setting a brisk pace across the grounds.

“Sense anything?” Kai asked Mathias.

Mathias inhaled a troubling mix of scents. Every fighting instinct flared to life. “Hell yeah. Faint trace of portal magic and a god-awful smell. Quarter mile east.” Mathias jerked his chin toward it. There were only a few creatures that smelled that bad, and none of them belonged on Earth.

With the guard and dog out of sight, the three Watchers darted to the fence and leaped over it easily. They landed softly on the snow-covered ground. They’d leave footprints, but Mathias could pull the guard’s memory if needed.

Racing ahead of the others, Mathias led them to a spot in the trees and stopped. The snow looked like someone had rolled around on it, and patches of brown grass poked through. More than one
someone
. But save for theirs, only one set of footprints led away from the mucked up ground. Two feet, large and booted, with a…
no shit
. The thin track of a tail graced a line between the left and right prints.