Playing with Darkness: Book 3.5 (Sensor Series) (3 page)

Nienna’s lips twitched when her gaze met mine, but she immediately turned her attention to Kerbasi. He’d followed close behind me when I’d come past the gate.

“Is this who I think it is?” she asked.

Had word about the guardian reached the fae city that fast?

“This is Kerbasi.” I waved my arm at him. “He’s just a travel companion. No one you need to worry about.”

I kept my face blank. Sometimes if you acted confident enough people would believe the most obvious of lies. Politicians did it all the time.

She peered closer at him. “His eyes are swirling. There is only one race I’ve heard of with such an unusual feature.”

When Kerbasi opened his mouth to respond, I stomped on his foot. Immortal or not, he could feel my boots squishing his toes with only open sandals to protect them. He winced. This was going to be difficult enough without the guardian making matters worse.

“He’s not going to cause any trouble while he’s here,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring voice. “Can we please get going? I’ve got a sick cat here who needs help.”

She looked down at Sable, her expression turning concerned.

“Perhaps I could take your cat to the healer for you. The elders will not be pleased if I allow the guardian into the city.”

I gritted my teeth. No one was taking my cat anywhere without me.

“I’ve got something the elders want—and you know what it is. The only way they’re getting it is if I’m allowed into the city to take care of my cat first.”

She took a step toward me. “I could take it from you.”

Sable lifted her head a fraction and growled.

“Over my dead body,” I replied, cuddling her closer.

Nienna sighed. “I don’t want to fight you, Melena. But I can’t let you into the city with this man.”

She looked at the silver cuff peeking out from under the sleeve of my t-shirt. Then she glanced at the matching one Kerbasi wore. Something told me Nienna knew we couldn’t get across the city without each other—it spanned three miles. The guardian would get towed along if I moved beyond our half-mile range. That was the deal I’d had to take to keep Lucas and me from being confined in Purgatory after I’d broken in there.

“You’re going to have to make an exception because the only way you’re getting the device back is if you let us in. You’ll just have to trust that I can keep him under control.”

Kerbasi grunted.

I glared at him. “So help me God, if you cause any trouble you’re going to spend the next week watching the Lifetime Network, starting as soon as we get back.”

A shudder ran across his body.

“You can make him do that?” Nienna asked incredulously.

I nodded. “I can. It’s part of the deal with the archangels. I can use whatever methods I choose to help him find his humanity and become a better person.”

“That Lifetime Network is not a lesson in humanity. It’s torture.” His eyes swirled faster in what I had come to recognize as a sign of annoyance. “If I’d known about it before, I would have forced my prisoners to watch it.”

I was rather certain Lucas would have preferred having his skin flayed off. Hopefully Kerbasi never got his old job back and figured out a way to pipe in cable there.

Nienna pursed her lips. “If you are sure you can keep him in line, I’ll allow you inside, but if anything happens expect repercussions.”

“Fine. Let’s go.”

I’d agree to anything at this point. Poor Sable had been more than patient through all of this. If something went terribly wrong with Kerbasi, I’d just have to deal with it.

Nienna turned away. “Follow me and I’ll take you to Garvan. He’ll be able to care for your cat.”

We passed by small homes in various states of construction with workers busily moving around them. The poorest of the fae had lived here before. Not only had they taken the worst of the blast, but they’d had the most unstable homes. Houses made of dried mud. The magic spells that were supposed to protect them hadn’t been enough to stand against the force of the explosion.

This time they were building them with metal support frames and wire mesh before encasing them in the mud—which I assumed would then be shaped and dried. Hopefully the homes would hold up better than the previous ones if another attack ever happened.

The roads had been reconstructed with cobblestones similar to other parts of the city as well. Even fresh plant life rose up where it had been obliterated. The fae knew how to recover quickly, though the magic I felt thrumming around me probably helped.

Nienna took us in a southeasterly direction to a section of the city I hadn’t visited before. The smell hit me first—a pungent aroma of manure. It reminded me of the semi-trucks that I’d driven past on the highway that hauled cows. In those cases I could speed up to get past them, in this one we just kept moving closer to the source.

The houses in this area were made of gray stones and didn’t appear to have any lasting damage from the blast. They were spaced apart enough to accommodate the livestock penned between them. There were cows, pigs, donkeys, chickens, and various other farm animals.

I already had a good idea which way we were headed. Regular animals didn’t come up on my sensor radar, but shape-shifter cats did. There were at least two dozen of them a quarter-mile away at the edge of the city.

Sable was still resting in my arms, but her ears twitched as we got closer and she briefly opened her eyes. I rubbed her paw with my thumb to sooth her. She might still be feeling miserable, but I could also sense worry coming from her. I’d always hated going to doctors too. Sable was smart enough to know that was basically what was happening.

A scream had me twisting around. In front of the house we’d just passed an older elf woman had flattened herself against her door and looked in our direction with terror in her eyes. More fae stopped what they were doing—to the point of dropping whatever burdens they were carrying. My senses were suddenly overwhelmed with the fear and panic of those around me.

With a sinking suspicion, I turned my attention to Kerbasi. He had his gray wings out and was literally preening them in front of a flock of geese. In turn, they were squawking up a storm and extending their own plumage out. His stretched a whole lot farther than theirs did. He nearly knocked down a small pixie boy when he turned too fast for the child to get away.

Oh, for the love of…I walked over and kicked him in the back of the leg.

“Kerbasi, if I have to put Sable down to shoot you, I’m going to be really pissed. Put your damned wings away and leave the geese alone.”

He folded them—though he kept them visible—and turned around.

“You just attacked me. I could retaliate against you for that,” the guardian said, glaring at me.

He’d threatened that more than once, but he’d yet to actually do anything. I couldn’t win against him in a physical fight. He was too strong, but I could punish him with extra humanity lessons. Or just shoot him a bunch of times.

“Retaliate if you want, but we both know I can make you more miserable than you can make me. Remember those frappuccinos you like so much? You’re not getting another one for the next month if you don’t hide your wings right now.”

I’d known helping him figure out his favorite food and drinks would come in handy eventually. There wasn’t a Starbucks or any place like it near my house. He relied on me to take him to one if he wanted something.

“You play dirty, sensor.” He gave me a hard look before turning his wings invisible, though I could still see the outline of them thanks to my immunity to magic. “You would have made an excellent protégé.”

I jerked my chin. “Get moving.”

He glanced at the geese one last time before heading back to the street we’d been traveling down. Along the way, I sensed tendrils of magic reaching out as he repaired the rips in his shirt. It’d been shredded when he’d exposed himself. Too bad his abilities didn’t extend to dirt removal—that would have been handy earlier.

Fae scurried out of the way or into their homes as we passed by them. When I ramped up my hearing, I picked up hushed whispers. They were speculating about Kerbasi and wondering if he was an angel or something else.

The gray wings probably threw them off. Most people knew angels had white and demons had black. His were interestingly in between. As far as I was aware, this was the first time a guardian had traveled outside of Purgatory. Because of that, not many people in the supernatural world knew about them. I sure hadn’t until Lucas had been imprisoned.

As soon as we went far enough down the street that there were no more gawkers standing about Nienna hustled close to me.

“I should take your weapons, you know,” she said in a low voice.

A humorless laugh escaped me. “Not if you want me to control the guardian, you won’t. Sometimes the only way to deal with him is to shoot holes in him. I can get a full twenty minutes peace if I shoot him in the mouth.”

A choking sound came from her.

“You’ve certainly got your work cut out for you,” she said after a moment. “I’ll let you keep your weapons, but try not to shoot anyone else.”

“Deal.”

We came up on a large ranch-style house at the end of the street. It stood on its own with several small wooden buildings positioned on the north side. I could sense shape-shifter cats within the structures and saw a few perched in the expansive windows. Most were in the form of a lynx the same as Sable.

“Garvan lives there,” Nienna said, pointing at the house. “He’s a breeder and trainer, but he’s also got the healing touch with animals.”

There were several elves inside the house. They felt something like morning dew falling against my senses, though one had a weightier sensation about him. Not necessarily a bad one, but it told me he held strong magic. He registered in my mind as being about four hundred years old.

We followed a dirt path up to his house and knocked on the door. A young elf girl answered it. She had light green skin, twinkling eyes, and pointed ears. Her hair was cut to shoulder length and was bright white. There was a time when I wouldn’t have been able to see past her odd fae features, but now I found her adorable.

“Can I help you?” she asked, looking up at us from her four-foot height. Elves could grow rather tall, but she was only seven years old.

“We need to speak with your grandfather,” Nienna said.

“Okay, wait here.” She slammed the door on us.

No matter the race, some things were always the same with kids.

I could sense the girl running through the house toward Garvan. While we waited, I took a look around. Kerbasi hadn’t joined us on the porch and was instead poking at flowers and plants in the front garden. When one of them almost chomped his finger off, he jumped back.

“What manner of infernal plant is this?” he asked.

“A Venus Fly Trap, though I think that one is a bit more aggressive than the ones I’ve seen before,” I answered him.

The fact that the plant popped up on my senses—though only at close range—told me a lot. They usually didn’t do that, but this one was sentient with hints of magic surrounding it. I could feel its hunger. The way it sniffed the air and stretched toward Kerbasi made me shudder. That just wasn’t right.

One of the reasons angels didn’t like the fae was because they tampered with the natural order of things. The peace between them was always tenuous. As the reactions to Kerbasi proved, the fae were well aware things could come crashing down at any time. The supernatural war from a few centuries ago was still fresh in many people’s minds.

He studied the plant closer. “What does it eat?”

There wasn’t much plant life in Purgatory and no animals that I’d seen. Ever since the archangel Remiel had brought the guardian to me, I’d had to deal with his constant deluge of questions about all things fauna and flora. Usually I had a smart phone to look things up, but they didn’t work in Feidlimid—not that we were near a cell tower anyway.

“Based on its size…really big bugs or maybe even mice.” I shrugged.

Horticulture was definitely not my thing. Eventually I was going to have to teach him about the internet and Google so he could find the answers to his million questions on his own. Sometimes it was like having a five-year-old child around.

The front door opened and we all turned our attention to it. A man with hair as white as the little girl stepped out. With the exception of a few lines on his forehead, he looked good for his age. He wore a pair of buckskin breaches, a button-up shirt, and cowboy boots.

Garvan came straight for me as soon as he saw Sable. Without so much as a word, he took the cat from my arms. I had to make myself let her go. For not being much of an animal lover, I’d grown to care about Sable and had a hard time trusting her with a stranger—even if he had been her trainer.

He walked into the house, but paused to look back at us. “Well, don’t just stand there. Follow me.”

Even Kerbasi stopped messing with the plants to come inside. I’d kind of hoped he’d stay out there and get his finger eaten off.

Garvan led us through the entry hall, past a large cozy-looking living room, and toward the back of the house. The whole place made me think I’d left the fae city and entered a western movie—except this guy raised shape-shifter cats instead of cattle. I even saw a collection of cowboy hats hanging on one of the walls.