Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 Read online

  “Yep. It was my last regeneration, and even then, the fact that it brought Z back was a miracle. One I can’t repeat.”

  She smiled up at Evalle. “But you risked truly dying when you linked with him.”

  Evalle shrugged. “He’d have done it for me.”

  “I have no doubt. Isn’t the warding around the castle still a problem for him?”

  “Tzader said it’s back up, but he can cross it.” Evalle shrugged. “Don’t ask me about majik. I just kill things.”

  Rowan nodded. “Back to my point, though, which is that Tzader can protect Brina as well as Macha, maybe better. His heart’s in the right place at least.” Rowan grimaced. “With Macha, who knows what beats in her chest? I doubt it’s a functioning heart.”

  This was why Evalle had stuck around for a bit. Rowan called it straight, with no concern over politics. “I couldn’t agree more, but I have no idea why Macha does or doesn’t do anything.”

  Rowan shook her head. “I wouldn’t leave my people to face off with their enemy. What’s the point of being loyal to a goddess if she isn’t just as dedicated to her people?”

  Sitting back and supporting her weight with her elbows, Rowan struck another cover-model-worthy pose.

  Men in this neighborhood who had turned in for the night were missing out, big-time.

  Evalle marveled over how the chilly air didn’t seem to bother Rowan, but she felt it all the way to her frozen toes. “I don’t know how we’re going to get rid of the Medb now that VIPER has allowed them to populate the city, but their coven members will eventually screw up. When they do, we’ll nail them even if it means taking them down one at a time.”

  “Sooner would be better than later.” Then Rowan added, “We think they may be attacking our witches. Some have gone missing.”

  “What? Did you report it to VIPER?”

  “Yes, for what good it did. Trey delivered a message to VIPER for me, then returned with a curt reply. I was informed that I had no hard evidence to support my claim. Also, that if the white witch membership and council wanted access to VIPER’s resources, they needed to join the coalition.”

  VIPER kept ordering the Beladors to smooth out relations with the Medb, but the coalition had no problem blowing off a powerful white witch who had kept tempers calm and prevented a massive witch war back in November.

  Rowan sat up and seemed to shake off her irritation. “If you got your demon or whatever tonight, why’re you here when I know you’d rather be home with Storm?”

  Just hearing his name brought a sense of peace to Evalle, and deep longing to get back to him. She explained, “Like I said, we don’t think it was demon, but this particular creature had been gathering food or something, because it captured a lot of dogs.”

  Surprise lifted Rowan’s voice. “You got that dog thief everyone’s complaining about? That’s great ... wait a minute. I know this is going to sound bad, but why would anything preternatural grab an animal when it could have a human?”

  “I don’t know. We kicked around several theories, and Lucien suggested it might be a tikbalang, but we don’t know for sure and we’ve got no idea who controlled it, so we’re just making wild guesses.”

  Rowan’s gaze narrowed at the mention of Lucien.

  Much like Lucien’s reaction to hearing Rowan’s name.

  What was going on between the witch and Lucien? Rowan didn’t share her thoughts, so Evalle stayed on track. “I’m here because one of the animals was not exactly a dog. Lucien says it’s a witch’s familiar.”

  That brought Rowan to her feet. “What does it look like?”

  “Cute in an odd way and not quite knee-high. Looks like a bichon frisé, but it has shaggy salt-and-pepper hair and—”

  “—a horn jutting up from its forehead plus a mouth full of fangs,” Rowan finished in a flat tone.

  Score. Evalle would be headed home empty-handed soon. “Great. You know who the owner is.”

  “Yes, it’s Mother Mattie. She leads a small, but powerful, coven of our oldest witches and she sits on the council, but ...” Rowan’s voice drifted off. “I don’t see how it could be Oskar.”

  Evalle was missing something.

  Shouldn’t Rowan be happy to get her friend’s familiar back? Speaking of which ... Evalle cast a glance at Storm’s SUV, where she found Oskar awake. He stood with his front paws on the window, watching them. His gaze went from Rowan to Evalle as if intent on keeping up with the conversation and waiting for a verdict.

  That wasn’t creepy. Not a bit.

  Hooking her thumb in the truck’s direction, Evalle asked, “So that’s Oskar?”

  Rowan took one look and said, “Yes.” She didn’t sound very happy to confirm the familiar’s identity. “He’s been with Mattie for over forty years.”

  “I didn’t think dogs lived that long.”

  “It’s not a dog, Evalle, and he’s very dangerous. In fact, no one should have been able to put their hands on him. That couldn’t happen unless …” Rowan lifted her fingers to her lips, looking worried. “Unless Mother Mattie was out of the picture.

  “You mean she’s ... dead?”

  “No, not dead... wait a minute.” She pulled a cell phone out of her robe pocket and ordered the phone, “Call Mother Mattie.”

  She put the call on speaker. It rang and rang, but not loud enough to wake a baby inside the house. The longer Rowan waited, the more tension Evalle picked up.

  Rowan stared with disappointment at the phone and terminated the call. “This is bad.”

  When Rowan said something was bad, Evalle took note. Pushing away from where she’d been propped against the short wall, Evalle asked, “You think something has happened to Mother Mattie, too?”

  “I’m sure of it. She keeps her phone handy, and Oskar even closer. I told you we have missing witches. If the Medb are behind this, and that would be the first place I’d look, VIPER is playing with fire by ignoring us.” Rowan glanced up. “Did you find any evidence of the Medb on that ... what was it?”

  “A ten-foot-tall creature that held a dark, shadowy glamour until we fought it, and no, there was no sign of Noirre or scent of Medb. If they did create it, the Medb managed to hide their singed lime odor and—”

  Energy flooded the air.

  Evalle snapped to attention, turning toward the source in the center of the yard.

  Rowan stepped down to stand beside her.

  Power whipped around Evalle, then a massive chestnut-colored horse appeared ... with a man’s upper body in place of the horse’s head and neck.

  A centaur.

  Not just any centaur. Deek D’Alimonte.

  This night would not end.

  Or it would end, but not well.

  Chapter 9

  Evalle tried to swallow against the dread clogging her throat. Call her a pessimist, but there could be nothing positive about the unexpected appearance of a bazillion-year-old centaur. She really had no idea of his exact age, but he was ancient. She said, “Hi, Deek.”

  Menace poured off him. He cut a scathing look her way, acknowledging her with one acidic word. “Alterant.”

  The horse part of Deek’s body had to go at least eighteen hands at the withers. From there, the neck of the horse blended into the torso of a man built for fighting Spartan warriors.

  Like really capable of battling those impossible-to-kill warriors.

  In his centaur form, Deek towered over Evalle, and she was tall for a woman. He struck a mighty pose. The guy was oblivious to being in the middle of suburbia, and seemed unconcerned that one of Rowan’s Midtown neighbors might notice him.

  Evalle had also seen Deek in his human form, and she’d call him hot if not for the insane ego that came with the whole package. So, yes, he could shift.

  He chose to be in this form.

  Rowan demanded, “What do you mean by coming to my home and in that form, centaur?”

  Did these two know each other?

  Deek amped up the death threat
in his glare. “This is not a social call, witch.”

  Yep, that sounded as if they were familiar.

  If any more tension built between Deek and Rowan, the ground would split open and spit fire next. That’d be funny if it wasn’t an exaggeration.

  Two houses down from Rowan’s, an engine revved to life and the car began backing out of the driveway.

  Evalle interrupted the glare fest. “Humans are going to see, uh, you, Deek.”

  “Don’t insult me by suggesting that I can’t shield myself from a human, Alterant. They see me only if I choose so.”

  “Don’t you insult a guest at my house, centaur,” Rowan warned.

  Clearly, names were not allowed at this impromptu meeting.

  The driver of the car passed by and never noticed the strange half-man, half-horse, or Rowan dressed in fluffy lingerie.

  Rowan went back on offense. “What are you doing here?”

  Crossing his arms, Deek said, “Searching for Mattie’s familiar.” His gaze swiped over to Storm’s truck, making it clear he’d found said familiar. “What’s it doing here, and where is Mattie?”

  Evalle decided to let Rowan take the lead, since these two knew each other. No one wanted to get caught between an angry witch and a scary centaur.

  Rowan watched him as she would a grizzly about to attack, but her voice changed with a thread of suspicion. “Why are you asking about Mattie?”

  Deek took a menacing step forward. “I answer to no one, witch.”

  “You do when it comes to my council members.”

  He leveled another laser look at her, wrinkling his nose. “You think I want to harm Mattie? If I wanted to harm anyone, you would not stop me.” His horse hooves shuffled about, while neither he nor Rowan gave an inch.

  Evalle had not known Deek to be a patient person. Who would give in first?

  Deek surprised her when he finally conceded, “Mattie is someone who matters to my niece. Now, where is she?”

  This could escalate quickly if someone didn’t help diffuse it. Guess that’s my job. Evalle offered, “Deek, Mattie is missing, and I was on a VIPER team that found her familiar, Oskar, after we killed a creature that had him cornered in a building. I brought him here to try to find the owner. Rowan just called Mattie, but she got no answer. Just before you showed up, Rowan was saying she’s sure something has happened to Mattie. We don’t have any lead on where Mattie is, or if someone has her, or why they took her if she was kidnapped. That’s it in a nutshell.”

  His attention shifted wholly to Evalle. He studied her for a moment, then a sly smile lifted his lips as if he’d come up with a clever idea. “You will find Mattie, Alterant, and return her home immediately.”

  Evalle had planned to help Rowan in any way she could, but Deek was not making this her responsibility. “I don’t have authority to do that because VIPER is not allowing agents to give aid to the white witches.” She sensed Rowan tense at that, so Evalle quickly added, “But I absolutely intend to do everything I can to help find Mattie.”

  “Do not confuse my words, Alterant,” Deek warned in a calm voice that would freeze water. “That was an order, not a request. You will find her, or have you forgotten our last conversation?”

  “You have no say over Evalle,” Rowan argued, hands going to her hips, which was probably the safest place for those dangerous fingers.

  But Evalle had no argument. Deek had her. She owed him an open-ended debt.

  During a Medb attack, Tristan had accidentally teleported Evalle into Deek’s private office above the Iron Casket nightclub. Due to very old agreements, VIPER had no authority on Deek’s property. Visions of Deek threatening to lock her in his dungeon assaulted Evalle’s mind. She’d been at his mercy, and agreed to repay the debt in exchange for Deek allowing her to leave alive. The centaur could have held her forever, or until Tzader, Quinn, and Storm came after her, which would have ended with them dead.

  Or he could have just as easily smoked her with a flick of his fingers.

  Evalle put a hand on Rowan’s arm. “Actually, I do owe him a favor.”

  “See, witch?” Deek said with a smug look. “’Tis as I said. The Alterant will find Mattie.”

  Evalle wouldn’t go quietly into the night, though. “You’re far more powerful than I am, Deek. Why can’t you locate Mattie? You found Oskar.”

  “Because I have you to find her.” He was pleased with his answer.

  Rowan leveled a narrowed gaze on him. “What is Mattie to your niece?”

  Fury stirred in Deek’s dark gaze, but it settled after a moment and he shrugged. “Mattie’s sister is my niece’s godmother.”

  Rowan looked away, thinking, then snapped her fingers and turned to Deek. “Caron? The Fae princess? She’s Mattie’s sister?”

  Sister? Fae princess? Evalle recalled rumors of Deek having once been involved with a Fae woman who broke off the relationship. Word was, Deek proceeded to create a nightclub so shiny and sparkly it would be irresistible to any Fae, and named it the Iron Casket.

  Not exactly subtle about his hard feelings over the breakup, since iron was death to many Fae.

  Deek’s hooves pawed at the lawn. “Caron and Mattie are half sisters.”

  “What’s up with Caron? Why can’t a Fae find her own half sister?”

  “Caron is none of your concern,” he grumbled back.

  “You don’t want to tell Caron that Mattie is missing,” Rowan said, sounding as if she’d figured out something. “Why?”

  Evalle wished she could send Rowan a telepathic shout to stop aggravating Deek, but Rowan didn’t share telepathy with Evalle.

  Glaring clearly had no effect on the witch, either. She continued jabbing that sore spot of Deek’s. “You listen to me, centaur. Don’t come around here making demands when you’re not willing to offer any substantial aid or explain why an all-powerful Fae can’t help.”

  Deek released a fierce growl that could send a herd of lions running.

  He snarled, “If you must know, they aren’t speaking. Mattie sided with me when Caron and I separated.”

  “Oh?” Rowan appeared genuinely surprised.

  “I last spoke with Mattie a month ago when she called to inform me that she’d invited Caron to visit this weekend. Mattie wanted to make peace with Caron before my niece’s birthday. I went by Mattie’s house to have her promise to contact me if Caron got out of hand. Caron and I are not communicating.”

  That sounded final. Evalle had been on the receiving end of Deek’s anger, and could only imagine him and a Fae going at it.

  Deek said, “When I found Mattie missing and came here, I expected to find Mattie’s familiar dead and have someone’s head to hand Caron when she arrived, but if that’s Oskar, Mattie must still be alive.”

  Evalle thought on that. “Did you teleport into Mattie’s house, Deek?”

  “No. What kind of barbaric men are you around, Alterant? No man just barges uninvited into the home of a woman like Mattie.”

  Evalle rolled her eyes, noting he’d narrowed that to a ‘woman like Mattie,’ which probably meant all others might be fair game. “Then how do we know she’s not there and unconscious?”

  “Because I teleported in to check on her.”

  “Wait, what?” Evalle mumbled.

  Deek’s eyes narrowed to thin slits and light glowed from them. “I went in after Mattie failed to answer my phone calls and my knock,” he said slowly, as if Evalle was a moron for not realizing the obvious reason he’d teleported in at that point.

  Engaging in verbal battle with an ancient centaur would serve her as well as asking Sen to personally give her a mani-pedi. Evalle asked, “Did you notice anything out of place?”

  “Other than Mattie and Oskar missing, no,” Deek replied. His hooves danced around then he settled down, tail swishing. “Be forewarned. While Caron may be angry with Mattie for siding against her, she will allow no one to harm her family. If Caron arrives to find Mattie missing, she will level this ci
ty and every other one in her path until her sister or her sister’s body is returned.”

  The way Deek kept moving around gave Evalle the idea that he was going to disappear soon. If she had to settle a debt with Deek, finding Mattie would be ideal, since she planned to help Rowan anyhow.

  If she found Mattie.

  But Evalle wanted a witness to the terms of her deal this time. “Deek, do you agree that if I find Mattie, my debt to you is paid in full?”

  “Did you say if, Alterant?”

  “I meant when,” Evalle corrected, even though she had no idea how she was going to make good on that.

  Rowan crossed her arms and cocked her head with challenge. “That seems reasonable to me.”

  Deek had been somewhat calm until Rowan spoke up. “Do not interfere.”

  Evalle sent Rowan a please-don’t-help-me look and waited for Deek to agree or not.

  It didn’t take long. He said, “If you return Mattie safe and sound before nine on Saturday morning, the debt will be considered settled.”

  “Why by nine on Saturday?”

  He smiled with victory. “’Tis the time that Caron is expected to arrive at Mattie’s house.”

  Deek raised a hand and Evalle rushed to stop him before he vanished. She shouted, “Wait. What about Oskar?”

  “Do not allow harm to come to him, or you will face me.” Deek flipped his hand and blinked out of view.

  The door on Rowan’s house opened.

  She and Rowan turned at the same time.

  Trey walked out, running a hand back and forth through his disheveled hair. He had a thick, sleep-drenched voice. “What’s all the shouting about? What’s going on out here?”

  Rowan waved him off. “Nothing that requires you to be up. I’ll check on the baby. Get your sleep and I’ll fill you in over breakfast.”

  Evalle said, “Sorry to wake you, Trey.”

  He nodded. “Call me if you need me.”

  She knew he meant telepathically and replied, “I will.”