Gods and Swindlers (City of Eldrich Book 3) (34 page)

Only one way to find out.

Owen stripped off the bloody T-shirt and taped a new blood balloon into place before putting his sweater back on. Then he taped Meaghan’s blood pack in place.

“What about Natalie?” she asked.

“Already did it,” Owen said. “She’s ready to roll.” He looked up at Luka. “Let’s do this.”

“Follow my lead,” Luka said.

“I always have.”

They headed down the basement steps.

Marnie, her eyes shut, tilted her head to one side as if listening. “And the spell . . . is done. The elf thinks Luka’s hexed the witches.”

They heard a guttural cry.

“That’s Owen,” Marnie said. “Brian . . .” She grabbed his arm. “Be safe down there, okay?”

He gave her a quick kiss. “You aren’t getting rid of me anytime soon.”

Marnie pulled him into a tight hug. “Good. Hang on.” She listened for a moment. “Now.”

Brian headed down the stairs. They heard him shout, then silence. Several female screams came soon after.

“There’s Natalie,” Marnie said. “Meg, you’re up.”
Luka’s way too impressed with himself at the moment. Be careful.

Meaghan adjusted the safety pin between her fingers, gave Marnie a quick hug, and headed down the stairs. The basement was more brightly illuminated than the rest of the house and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. A glowing ball of pale blue light hung near the ceiling.

She looked down at Natalie and—even though she knew it was fake blood—gasped.

Meaghan shrieked and dropped to her knees at Natalie’s side. She kept her back to the elf, screening Natalie from his line of sight. “Natalie,” Meaghan sobbed. “No!”

Natalie winked at her.

Meaghan climbed to her feet and next spotted Owen curled in a ball at Luka’s feet. “Luka, what the hell . . .”

Brian stepped up, his face blank. He grabbed Meaghan’s shirt and spun her around so her back was to the elf. He gave her a few punches to the gut and she reacted like they’d practiced. By anticipating the blow and moving with it, the punch turned into a firm shove.

She curled to the ground and made retching noises, the safety pin still safely hidden in her hand.

“Bring her here,” Luka said.

Brian grabbed her roughly by the arms, pulled her up, and threw her at Luka’s feet.

Meaghan pushed herself onto her hands and knees. She glanced at the elf. It had a smirk on its face and its eyes gleamed. It was enjoying the show.

Luka reached down and twined his hand in her hair, and pulled her to her knees. Like Brian had, he was careful to make sure that Meaghan had her back to the elf so it couldn’t see her face.

But the stress of the last couple of days washed over her and Meaghan didn’t have any trouble feigning tears. “You bastard,” she wailed. “I knew we couldn’t trust you. I knew it.”

“Too bad the others didn’t listen,” Luka said in a friendly voice. “They ignored my past and now they’ll pay for it.”

“You killed them,” Meaghan asked. “You killed Owen. Your best friend.”

“I don’t have friends,” Luka hissed. “Friends are for the weak. Like you. I’m going to enjoy watching you die.”

“Why are you doing this?” Meaghan wailed. “You said you’d help us fight the elves.”

“Why would I want to do that?” Luka pushed her back to the ground. “They’ll turn me back into the god I was meant to be. Why would I want a world without magic?”

Come on, come on,
Meaghan thought.
Start talking. Let me hear the evil plan.

In a pleasant voice, Luka said, “Would you like to tell her or should I?”

The elf began to shriek with what Meaghan recognized as laughter. “Kill her.”

“No!” Meaghan sobbed. “Luka, please. Why are you helping them? Why?”

“Kill her,” the elf hissed.

Cooper would be blabbing away by now. Time for a new strategy.

She pushed herself to her feet. “You lying bastard. If I die, you’re going with me.”

Luka shoved her back to the ground.

Meaghan yelped in pain.
Not the goddamn knee again.
She’d landed on the same one she’d bashed up in Fahraya.
Hello, knee surgery.

“Brian, kill her. Now.”

Meaghan felt Brian’s arm around her waist pulling her to her feet. She struggled in a halfhearted way, her knee on fire. This time Brian positioned her so the elf could see both of them in profile.

You still have the pin?
Marnie asked her.

Yes.

Brian pulled the fake dagger from his belt and jabbed it into her gut at the same time she popped the blood-filled balloon with the pin.

Meaghan felt the sticky wetness spread across her stomach. She stumbled against Brian and he slumped to the floor with her.

And kept going.

What the hell
 
.
 
.
 
.

She glanced at the elf, but it was staring at Luka, a greedy smile across its sallow face.

Upstairs, Marnie screamed.

The elf shrieked something and the room began to rumble.

Luka cried out in pain and dropped to his knees.

Brian slumped further to the floor, pinning Meaghan, as the room began to glow red. She looked over Brian’s shoulder and saw a circle of small hooded figures closing in on Luka.

Somebody clattered down the stairs and the light turned golden. Marnie began to shout in a language Meaghan had never heard her use before.

The elves hissed as they surrounded Luka. A few screamed and fell as the golden light touched them, but the others stayed on their feet.

Meaghan heard one final wail from Luka and then the knot of elves, with Luka firmly in their grasp, vanished into the air.

Their prisoner shrieked out another screechy laugh. “You want him back, bring us your father. When you bring us the smith and the—” He screeched something and spat on the ground.

“We will make your father stay dead this time,” the elf hissed. Then he disappeared too as the chains surrounding him clanked to the ground.

Chapter Forty-Two

“B
RIAN,” MARNIE SCREAMED
. “Brian!”

She pulled him off Meaghan and checked his breathing. Her calm demeanor had vanished. She burst into panicked weeping. “No, no, no.”

Then she kissed him.

The golden light poured over them both. In a moment, Brian began coughing and Marnie pulled away. She collapsed on top of him, her arms around him, as she sobbed.

“Babe,” he gasped. “Shhh. I’m here. We’re okay.”

Meaghan glanced over at Natalie kneeling on the basement floor, a solemn look on her face. Then Natalie nodded slightly and jumped to her feet. She helped Owen to his feet, then reached a hand out to Meaghan.

“They can’t have Kady’s baby,” Natalie said. “I don’t care how important Luka is.” She glanced at Owen. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be. If you handed the baby over, Luka would never forgive me. This is our fault. Goddamn it.” He turned to Meaghan, his eyes wide with shock. “Meg, you can say I told you so now. We should have listened to you. We got played.”

“And I should have fought you harder on it.” Meaghan tried to put her weight on her sore knee. “Oh, that’s not good. Shit. I can’t walk on this.”

Terry ran down the stairs. “What happened? Where’s Luka?”

Owen grimaced. “Gone. They took him. The elves have been one step ahead of us the whole time. Meg was right. They’ve got a whole new playbook.”

Terry looked queasy. “They really want me delivered, don’t they?”

“Not you,” Meaghan said. “My father. The baby. They want to kill the baby to make sure Matthew can’t come back.”

Marnie had stopped crying. She pushed her hair out of her face, helped Brian to his feet, and crouched in front of Meaghan. “Let me see that.”

Marnie placed gentle hands around Meaghan’s leg. Another flare of golden light filled the room. Meaghan felt a surge, like warm water, flow through her knee, then the pain disappeared, leaving a pleasant tingling.

“What did you do?” Meaghan stared at Marnie, eyes wide. “What did you do to me?”

“Healed you, right?” Brian’s voice was rough and weak, but he was standing. “She did that to me, too.”

“They stopped his heart,” Marnie said. “I restarted it. Terry could probably do the same thing.”

“Not with a kiss,” Brian said. “What do we do, Meg?”

And here we go
 
.
 
.
 
.
everybody’s looking at me.
“We don’t tell Kady, but we need a spell wall around her fast.” She tested her knee again, then looked at Marnie. “You fixed all of it?”

Marnie, clinging to Brian, nodded. “The cartilage was a mess. I cleaned everything up.”

“How?”

“I have no idea,” Marnie said. “I just did it. I didn’t know I could until now.”

Break it down into smaller problems
 
.
 
.
 
.
“We have a dragon on its way. Is the house still shielded?”

Marnie shut her eyes and concentrated. A moment later, she opened them and said, “It is now.”

“What else can you do?” Meaghan felt a flutter of hope. “Can you stop the dragon?”

“I think it’s only defensive,” Marnie said. “I can put up barriers, but the rest is sort of . . .”

“Nurturing,” Brian said. “Patrice couldn’t do this stuff.”

“That we know of,” Natalie said. “I’ll go beef up the magic protecting Kady.”

“What about you?” Meaghan asked Terry. “How are you holding up? Still got control?”

Through the narrow basement windows, there was a flash of light, followed by a deafening crack. “Yeah. Those fuckers are dead. I’m done with this. I’m getting Luka back.”

“No, you’re staying here and frying the dragon,” Meaghan said. “I’m getting Luka back.”

Even as the words came out of her mouth, she felt the fear begin to grow.

What the hell did I say
 
.
 
.
 
.

“Back from where?” Lynette asked. She looked exhausted, dark circles under her eyes, her normally tidy silver hair in disarray. “Do we know where they took him?”

Meaghan glanced at Owen. “Any ideas?”

“The archive?” Owen shook his head. He looked tired and lost. For the first time since Meaghan had known him, Owen looked little.

“Let’s get out of here,” Meaghan said. “Upstairs. We need to get everybody together and figure this out.”

They trudged up the stairs. The loss of Luka had hit Owen and Terry especially hard, but everyone was rattled. The witches’ barrier spells hadn’t kept the fair folk out. The iron chains hadn’t stopped the elf from disappearing.

Can you talk this way to the others?

Not exactly,
Marnie told her,
but I can get messages to them.

Get everybody in the living room. Except Natalie, Buzz, and Jeff. They need to stay with Kady.

Will do.

“I wonder what other magic didn’t work,” Gretchen said to Meaghan when they reached the living room. “Like all of it maybe?”

The living room was crowded with people, all with grim looks on their faces.

“They took Luka?” Steph asked.

“They want the baby,” Meaghan said.

There was a loud clatter from the dining room. “Ow, move.”

“You move. Watch it. Why did you bring that?”

“Even a crap sword is better than none.”

Meaghan heard a muffled swear, then a third voice said, “Dude, get out of the way. We gotta get this closed.”

There was a loud pop, and the faint aroma of Doritos drifted into the room.

Dustin appeared in the dining room doorway, flanked by two figures in jeans and hooded sweatshirts. Meaghan recognized them as the monks she’d met earlier in the day.

“Where did you guys come from?” Meaghan asked.

“I snuck in through the server room to see if I could help,” Dustin said. “The elves hate technology, so I knew they wouldn’t be there. But these guys were. They were trying to get over here.”

“Tell me your names again,” Meaghan said.

The blond freckled one stepped forward. “I’m Clint. This is Todd.”

The bald one with glasses raised his hand.

“And what do you have there?” Meaghan asked, feeling dangerously calm. A rant was close, she could feel it. “Are those swords?”

“Yeah,” Todd said. With shaking hands, he held up a shiny sword with a jeweled hilt. In an awed voice, he said, “This is Treasure, the sword of Tyr.”

Clint was holding another sword with much less reverence. It had a simple hilt, no jewels, and wasn’t the least bit shiny. “This one doesn’t have a name. It’s an old piece of junk.”

“Let me see that,” Terry said, holding his hand out to Todd. Reverently and with care, Todd presented the sword, hilt first to Terry.

“Somebody’s been polishing it, I see,” Terry said in a dry voice. “Where’d you get the name from?”

“The runes on the handle,” Dustin said. “See? It says only a wise man may wield the sword Treasure.”