The Curse (34 page)

“Basement, but like the other floors in that place it covers as much area as a football field. We have to be careful not to kill a human. With this building in the middle of a major rehabilitation right now, the Svarts have very likely glamoured themselves to look like security for the developers.”

Adrianna stepped up and Evalle tensed. She hadn’t seen the witch until now. When Adrianna ignored her and moved closer to listen, Evalle glanced over at Storm for a moment, assessing him, then back at Tzader.

Evalle suffered a wave of jealousy she had no doubt Storm would pick up on, so she pulled back from the circle of agents crowded around the sidewalk. She could hear just fine without having to stand so near the Sterling witch.

Storm swung around to look at her, then his sharp gaze shot past her shoulder and turned murderous. In one step, he reached Evalle and yanked her around behind him.

Was he crazy?

She shoved his arm aside and glared her opinion of his ridiculous action, then forced her way around beside him, ready to face whatever threat he was trying to protect her from.

Beladors picked up on intruders approaching first and dispersed, then all the VIPER agents followed suit, lining up in a show of force to each side of her and Storm.

Across the street, deadly-looking men seeped out of the darkness as if their bodies formed from the obsidian shadows. Five, no, eight of them. Hard faces beneath black-smudged eyes and cheeks, but none more hardened than that of their leader, Isak Nyght. Every black-ops soldier aimed a demon blaster at the VIPER team.

Evalle now understood Storm’s action because she wanted to step in front of every agent here who had trusted her to contact Isak Nyght. So much for her and Isak’s truce.

TWENTY-SEVEN

W
hat have you done, Roogre?” Kizira demanded of the eight-foot-tall Svart troll commander, as she entered her personal solar in Tŵr Medb. Home of the Medb, for now.

Roogre answered by eyeing her as he would a buzzing insect.

She found that amusing since
he
had the greenish-brown skin of a bug and stood out as a dirty smudge amid silk cushions and sparkling glass art. Thick arms bulged with so much heavy muscle beneath the goatskin vest that she doubted the hideous troll could cross his arms. If he had a neck it wouldn’t improve a face that could make a mother wish she’d sewn her womb shut. Purple-inked designs scrolled around eyes as black as his soul, covering his entire face and slick head.

Kizira may have erred in dealing with a being demons would be wise to fear. “You said your trolls could go a week without feeding.”

“True.” His tenor voice threw the image of that body off-kilter. Roogre sniffed, causing his bulbous nose to flare and the lips across his wide mouth to lift, revealing sharp teeth.

“Why are your trolls gathering up nonhumans?”

“I said they
could
go a week, not that they would.”

He’d intentionally misled her, and his murdering trolls might ruin everything.

Kizira had spent long nights figuring a way to slide around Flaevynn’s compulsion spell so Kizira could orchestrate her own plan. She’d gambled much with Roogre, and even more with the man she’d just left, but she’d truly doubted that Qu …
he
could get past her mental shields. From the look on his face when he’d rushed out of the hotel room, he must have been successful.

Perhaps too successful.

She stalked across the room enclosed by peach, rose and yellow flowers blooming from vines that climbed a silver trellis. One day, she would grow real flowers in earth.

That would not happen if this step of her plan failed.

Or if Flaevynn found out why Kizira had convinced her to bring in Svart trolls.

Kizira swung around, giving Roogre her sharp censure. “Your trolls have drawn the full attention of VIPER in Atlanta sooner than expected.”

“True.”

“You have broken your word.”

“Not true.”

“How do you see that?”

“We agreed the mission would be completed by the end of the week. You chose no specific hour or day to draw VIPER out in the open. My trolls are on task.”

Technically correct, but still a lie by omission.

She’d agreed to those terms, but the battle strategy he’d laid out to her afterward had projected a timeline that suited her needs for capturing Alterants. Not feeding his trolls.

Humans wouldn’t notice missing nonhumans, but VIPER would.

What else had Roogre done that he’d failed to discuss with her first?

She could either stand here and waste time arguing what would change nothing or accept that few plans ever went as intended. “The turmoil going on in Atlanta at this minute forces us to expedite the timeline.”

“So we execute the second phase, the one you and I discussed … alone?”

The quelling look she gave him only raised an evil smile to his lips. He said, “Don’t glare at me, witch. You said tell no one and I’ve told no one.”

Miserable, untrustworthy trolls. She didn’t want him to even whisper about their secret meeting while inside the walls of Tŵr Medb. She’d reply in a way that would dilute what he said in case the walls had ears, but once this was done, and he had the section of earth he desired, she’d never deal with such filth again.

“Everything I do is to benefit the queen. If you wish to be handed North America—by the queen—when this is done, do not say another word except to answer my questions. Understand?”

“Understood.” Roogre’s amused demeanor hid the temperament of a hungry cobra. He fingered the sword honed of a blue metal that hung alongside stubby legs in brown leather pants. Razor claws at the end of his fingers, matching those on his three-toed feet, curled with a hint of threat.

But inside Tŵr Medb, only Cathbad and Flaevynn were more powerful than Kizira. This Svart might be a danger to her outside the tower, but not in her home, where her power increased. “It’s time to send in both of your demonic trolls.”

“One is dead.”

“Not possible,” she whispered, shocked. “Where? How?”

“Killed in a skirmish with a Belador in Atlanta.”

“Why did you risk sending one out?”

All amusement fled from Roogre’s face. “To find those who killed two of my trolls. Before you speak too quickly, I told you I would exact payment immediately for any troll lost while under my command.”

“You also said your trolls were practically indestructible against Beladors since they would avoid linking around a Svart.”

“True.”

“Obviously not.” Then it dawned on her. “What specific Belador killed your trolls?”

“The Alterant Evalle Kincaid.”

Kizira kept her temper under control or the air would explode with lightning. “Your trolls were to
capture
Alterants, not fight them, and none were to touch Evalle yet.”

“My troll intervened to stop her from killing another Alterant and had no idea of her identity when he did.”

That didn’t sound like Evalle. Sure that Roogre held back information he didn’t want to share, Kizira asked, “Was she killing an Alterant or a Rías?”

“My soldiers don’t have time to qualify a beast while it’s changing if you want these things captured instead of killed. We’ll bring you all the Alterants and Rías we find, then you can give me any you don’t keep and I’ll dispose of them for you.”

She hid her disgust at his offhanded reference to eating the leftovers, so to speak. “How can you be so sure Evalle killed your troll if you don’t communicate by telepathy?”

Roogre held up a six-inch-wide gold medallion hanging from a chain around his neck. He’d told her once that the runic
S
cut out of the center was used as the template for marking his trolls. “My blood is mixed with the acid that burns this emblem into the forearms of those under my command. With the exception of my Lieutenant in the field who can speak to me through my mind, my trolls can’t communicate telepathically, but I receive a visual message from them upon death. The last heartbeat of a Svart troll sends an image to me of the one who killed him.”

By the gods, she wanted to slash Roogre to pieces. “Then you sent one of the demonic trolls to kill Evalle and
she
won that battle, too?”

“No. A four-legged, black demon cat beheaded my troll, and he will pay with his life.”

She didn’t care how many demons Roogre destroyed, but Alterants were another issue. “You can’t kill
any
Alterants.”

“Why? You’re ready to implement the second phase immediately and said yourself that if it is successful, those five Alterants will no longer be necessary.”

How had she allowed him to speak so openly again? The queen believed the Svart commander’s only goal was Flaevynn’s order for his trolls to capture Alterants in Atlanta.

Giving him death-threat glares did nothing. Again, she had to cover for the words he’d spoken out loud. “The second phase is only to support Queen Flaevynn’s goal of seeing Treoir fall.”

Humor flitted across Roogre’s gaze, letting her know he understood—as well as she did—the dangerous game she played. “Don’t worry. The demonic troll I sent to Atlanta was the weaker of the two. The second one still hidden is far more invincible after having been dipped twice in Loch Ryve. I await only your word to take my strongest team to … ?”

As if she’d tell him one second too soon or speak the location out loud? She gave up trying to cover his constant slips, which were by no means accidental, but Flaevynn had not come bursting in yet, so all still appeared safe at this point. Kizira had one chance to get a step ahead of the queen.

Time to take the plunge into dangerous waters.

Kizira said, “I’ll send you and your team now, but I want your word to wait twenty minutes once you arrive before doing anything. That will give you time to get your trolls in place.”

“I don’t need twenty minutes.”

“I do because I want to be present, but I must speak to Queen Flaevynn first.”

“To assure her of impending victory?”

Why couldn’t Flaevynn compel Kizira to turn miserable trolls into a pile of flaming cow dung? Kizira needed the extra time to direct Flaevynn’s attention to her scrying wall to watch the Svart and VIPER battles in Atlanta. That should keep the queen busy while Kizira slipped away.

No matter. Kizira had to be on-site for one reason—to protect Qu …
him
from being ripped to pieces by Svart trolls.

Touching Roogre would probably give her nightmares, but she was ready to teleport him and his men to their next destination. By the time Roogre knew where he was going, the only person he could share that with would be his Lieutenant, who would say nothing to endanger Roogre and his fellow trolls.

But before she sent him on his way, she asked, “How many Svarts will remain in Atlanta?”

“My Lieutenant and enough to handle fifty Beladors, but we face only a handful at a time, just as I told you would happen. Attacking in the cemeteries gave our opponent specific target areas, too many to defend. With no idea where we’ll strike next, they’ve spread their resources thin across the city.”

“Hold out your forearm.” When he turned the runic
S
scar up for her to see, she said, “Call up the list in your mind of who will go. When I touch you, they’ll all teleport at once.”

“I’m ready.”

She placed her palm on the raised skin of his scar, which heated immediately. Kizira waved her free hand between them, but just before Roogre disappeared his eyes widened. She started to call him back to find out why, then realized it had to be due to his seeing where she’d sent him.

She looked at her hand, trying to decide if peeling off a layer of skin would clean away the troll’s contamination.

“Looking for me, Kizira?”

Kizira froze at the caustic edge in Flaevynn’s voice, but that rarely changed. Kizira forced a smile on her face and dropped her hand as she turned to find the Medb queen at the arched entrance to her solar. “Yes, Your Highness. Things are moving along sooner than anticipated with the plan in Atlanta. Perhaps you’d like to view it on your—”

“But Roogre is not following my directions, now is he?”

Flaevynn must have heard them, but how much?

Never show a weakness to a vicious queen. “I admonished Roogre about not executing as agreed upon.”

“Really? Perhaps not the plan
I
agreed upon, but another version. Yours maybe?”

Kizira had climbed too deep into this game to play it halfway. “I often speak on your behalf, but I assure you Roogre knows who contracted him.”

Flaevynn disappeared and reappeared right in front of Kizira. The queen’s image flared with light and power meant to intimidate, a successful effort at present. Flaevynn purred in a dangerously soft voice, “You of all people should know what I do to someone who betrays me.”

Kizira’s pulse shot off the charts. She couldn’t stop her thoughts from racing wildly. Several images of torture came to mind unbidden.

Curbing her anxiety to manage a subservient voice, Kizira said, “I have been your loyal servant since taking my priestess training twelve years ago. I’ve done all that you’ve asked.”