Mother May I (Knight Games Book 4) Page 11

  She gritted her teeth and motioned to Hildegard. The owl took off down the passageway. We waited. I glanced at the door above me, heart pounding. When Hildegard returned, Polina’s face lit up. She gestured for me to follow her and took off. Over packed dirt, wood beams, and the occasional bones, we navigated the tunnel to a crude stone stairway.

  “Where do you think it leads?” Polina asked.

  “Only one way to find out.”

  We jogged to the top and Polina nudged the door open with her shoulder.

  From the cold, filthy tunnel, we emerged into an office space decorated with warm wood and stained glass. Not only did I recognize the office, but I recognized the man sitting behind the desk, staring at us with a scowl.

  “Logan,” I whispered.

  He folded his arms across his chest. “What the fuck did you two do to my wall?”

  * * * * *

  Once the door closed behind us, it disappeared into the wall of Logan’s office. “As good as an enchantment,” Polina said, feeling for the seam.

  I wondered if this was how Gary had reached Logan to compel his cooperation in getting my things. I decided not to bring up the topic. Some things are better left unsaid.

  A brief explanation later, we climbed into a booth at the back of Valentine’s. It was past closing time, and the restaurant was empty.

  “So Rick and Julius are still over there?” Logan asked.

  “I think so. We were separated. Poe is with them too. Maybe we should circle back.” I wrung my hands.

  “Give them a few minutes,” Polina said. “Nobody knows that place better than Julius. They’ll make it out.”

  Logan scratched his temple. “I’d heard about the tunnels, but I never realized they were still functional.”

  “Julius made it sound like the vampires regularly use them to move around during the day,” I said. “I didn’t know either.”

  “A huge network of bloodsuckers thriving under the city.” Polina stuck out her tongue in a yuck face at Logan.

  “Thanks for the image, Polina,” Logan said. “At least now I know how Julius kidnapped me when he rescued me from Tabetha.” Julius had kept Logan in his safe house for a time when Tabetha had threatened to kill him. Of course, what she really wanted was to kill me. Still, I appreciated Julius keeping Logan safe. The thought made me anxious to learn the fate of the vampire, my caretaker, and my familiar.

  I didn’t have to worry long. There was a knock on the locked front door. Logan motioned for us to wait while he peeked behind the window shades. A moment later he unlocked the door and Poe, Rick, and Julius hurried inside.

  A sigh of relief broke my lips. I couldn’t help myself. I bound out of my seat and threw my arms around Rick’s neck, kissing him on the cheek. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

  He hugged me back and stroked my hair. “I am safe, but I fear you are not.”

  I backed away. “What do you mean?”

  Julius answered for him. “Lives were lost today, Grateful. The goblins want you dead, and they are willing to do anything and kill anyone to get to you. I’ve never seen anything like it. We barely made it out alive.”

  Rick nodded. “If it weren’t for Julius convincing me to follow him through a tunnel barely large enough for a dog, we’d be dead.”

  “I encouraged him to mist, but he could only manage a partial transformation,” Julius said. “It was enough.”

  “You misted?” I asked.

  “Not exactly,” he said.

  “He softened around the edges,” Julius explained.

  “Well, that’s something,” I said encouragingly.

  Rick glanced away from me. Through our connection, I could sense the process had been painful. “It’s okay, Rick. It’s not your fault. Polina and I think that Tabetha’s persigranate poisoning did more than make you forget me; it undid part of the magic that happened after I died. The caretaker spell was never completed.”

  Every face turned toward me. “Polina and I went back in time. We saw the whole thing. After I died, an angel came down from heaven and completed the spell. That’s the part Rick lost. Whatever the angel did is gone.”

  Poe, who was looking rather cozy huddled on the coatrack next to Hildegard, perked to attention. “Angels do not interfere in the realm of Hecate.”

  “The bird is correct,” Julius said. “Angels keep to the human realm. No witch includes angels in her spells.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  Polina shook her head. “I was skeptical too, but it sure as hell looked like an angel to me. The thing was made of pure light.”

  “How do we find out? Is there some spell we can do to conjure angels and ask if any of their kind helped Rick in the past?”

  With a scoff, Julius slid in next to Polina. “Never. No supernatural being has access to angels.”

  “I do,” Logan said. Everyone turned to stare in awe at the only human in the group. “Not directly, of course. My mom’s in heaven, and she sometimes speaks with me. I could ask her about the angel next time she visits.”

  Polina’s eyes widened, and she grabbed Logan’s hand. “Can you speak with her anytime you want? Is she here now?” The redhead’s eyes darted around the room.

  “Eh, no,” Logan said, blushing slightly. “It’s sort of a one-way call with her. She comes to me and tells me things, but I can’t, um, go to her.”

  My shoulders sagged. “So what do we do while we’re waiting for Mrs. Valentine to make an appearance?” I asked.

  Silence.

  Julius finally spoke up. “We seek the allegiance of a water witch, as planned. If Logan is able to use his abilities as a medium to help you restore Rick, then you can use him in the spell as the earth element. Meanwhile, we obtain the allegiance of the water element.”

  “Whoa,” Logan said. “So you’re going to do this? Try to unite the elements?”

  “There’s no other way out. Hecate or her goblins will eventually find and kill me if I don’t.” My brow furrowed and I turned to Julius. “How did the goblins find your safe house anyway?”

  He rubbed the smooth skin of his jaw. “Judging by the sequence of events, I believe the maid saw the mark on your chest and took it upon herself to tell her husband, who tried to profit at our expense. They are both dead. I found them shot by goblin arrows at the entrance to the speakeasy, presumably after leading them there.”

  “What’s on your chest?” Logan asked.

  Tugging the neck of my shirt aside, I showed Logan the still-healing wound. He scowled and shook his head. I allowed the material to snap back into place.

  “So… where do we find a water witch?” I asked in the awkward silence that followed.

  Polina shrugged. “Anywhere there’s a ton of water.”

  I retrieved my phone from my back pocket and did a quick search for the wettest places in the US. “Hilo, Hawaii; Annette Island, Alaska; Quillayute,Washington…”

  Julius wrinkled his nose. “Avoid Quillayute. There’s a family of vampires there who don’t appreciate my company.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Poe said.

  Everyone laughed but Julius. I moved to the next place on the list. “Astoria, Oregon.”

  Polina straightened. “I know her! I know the Astoria witch. Her name is… Kendall—no, that’s not right—Kendra. Yes, it’s Kendra. I haven’t seen her in decades.”

  “But you know her.”

  “We met during the Gold Rush. We were both vacationing there in 1849. I was there for the gold, you know, metal witch. She must have been there because of the water. They panned the gold on the riverbeds. Anyway, we tormented a few cowboys together for entertainment. I can’t promise she’ll remember me, but I can say she seemed like a reasonable witch.”

  “Astoria it is,” I said. “There’s only one problem. All of my credit cards and identification are in the bag I left at the safe house. I don’t suppose you guys brought it with you.”

  “We barely escaped with our skin,” Rick sa
id.

  “I can’t buy a plane ticket without it,” I said. “How will we get to Astoria? Walk?”

  “I can lend you money for the ticket,” Logan said. “But they’ll never let you use it without identification, and I’m guessing Rick doesn’t have any either.”

  “Make that three of us,” Polina said. “We have the clothes on our backs. I could take us through the pipes—”

  “No!” Julius and I said together. Julius grunted. “Simple. I’ll compel our way onto the plane. Logan will buy our tickets.”

  “They scan your license,” I said. “Compulsion will only get you so far.”

  “Leave it to me,” Julius said. “We best get to the airport. I’ll be useless by morning. Which brings to mind an awkward practicality, I must ask that one of you be willing to care for me in my diurnal state.”

  “Done,” I said.

  Logan stood. “Give me a minute. I have a change of clothes in the office, and I need to grab my wallet.”

  I shook my head. “You’re not coming with us! It’s too dangerous. Just lend me cash for the tickets.”

  He laughed. “Grateful, unless you have a charger in your bra, your phone is going to be dead in a few hours. You need me with you in case my mom comes a calling. Besides, I already made the deposit for the night. I don’t have that kind of cash here.”

  Rick hung his head. “I may not be of use without his help with the angel.”

  Julius nodded his agreement.

  I didn’t like including Logan. It went against everything I’d promised myself about keeping him away from danger. But I had no choice.

  “You must be joking!” Polina motioned to Hildegard, and the snowy owl landed on her shoulder. “He’s human. If he goes, it’ll be suicide.” She squinted at Logan, scanning him from head to toe. “You know you’re going to die, right?”

  Logan lifted the corner of his lip. “I can take care of myself, lady. And I can make my own decisions. I’m going.” He stormed toward his office.

  Polina turned to me. “You’re not going to let him go, are you?”

  “If I had any hope of changing his mind, you just obliterated that idea,” I said pointedly toward Polina. “The surest way to make Logan do something is to tell him he can’t. There won’t be a chance in hell of talking him out of it now.”

  Chapter 17

  Baggage Claim

  A few hours and several tense moments with security later, I found myself nestled next to Rick on a flight from Manchester to Portland. Julius had arranged for special airport services in the form of an ogre for hire. He conveniently left Julius’s coffin on the tarmac long enough for him to mist into it after he compelled our way through security. The sun rose as we took off. We’d land in the afternoon and have to take care of the vampire’s body until sundown.

  “Have I flown in an airplane before?” Rick stared out the window at the lightening sky.

  “I don’t know. You’re several hundred years old, so I’d be surprised if you hadn’t.”

  “Seems unnatural.”

  The plane jostled and Rick gripped the armrest until I feared he’d rip it off. “It’s just turbulence,” I said, placing my hand over his. “Besides, you do know you can fly, right?”

  “So you tell me.”

  “You shifted the other night. It was painful and slow, but you did it with my help. Believe me, if this plane was going down I’d help you. We’d figure it out.”

  “You have greater confidence in me than I have in myself.”

  His frown reflected in the small round window. “Shifting wasn’t what you expected.”

  “It was painful. Excruciating. But what made it worse was before. I wanted to be with you. My body was alive for you and then”—he shook his head—“The beast took control. I tried to stop it and it happened anyway. What if—”

  “What if we can’t be together without you shifting?”

  He nodded.

  “We always could before, Rick. I’m figuring out how to make this easier for you, for us. Polina and Logan are helping us. Trust in that. We’ll figure out how to make you whole again.”

  He nodded but didn’t meet my eyes. I stared out the window over his shoulder in silence.

  “I’d do it for you,” he murmured.

  “Do what?”

  “If this plane went down, I’d shift again and learn to fly, if it meant saving you.” He glanced back at me, a ghost of a smile turning the corners of his lips.

  I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I know you would.”

  * * * * *

  When we arrived in Portland, I exited the flight hand in hand with Rick, Logan and Polina behind us. I was surprised to find a pale slip of a woman with a black bob waiting for us at the end of the jetway. She wore an airport uniform and the sign in her hands read Grateful Knight.

  No one was supposed to know I was in Oregon. Even my ticket was purchased using a different name. I slowed my steps, allowing the crowd to drift around me.

  “Who is she?” Polina asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “She’s not goblin. I don’t even think she’s supernatural. Those dark circles under her eyes can only be human,” Polina said.

  Logan snorted. “Can we stop with the human bashing?”

  Polina turned her nose up and ignored him. “What’s that on her neck?”

  I squinted, trying to see what Polina saw, but my eyes couldn’t make it out. Luckily, Rick’s vision was better than mine.

  “Vampire bite,” he answered. “She appears to have made an attempt to conceal it.”

  I sighed. “She’s probably working for Julius. We have to get his body.”

  Bolstered by murmurs of agreement from the group, I approached the girl, noticing her listless composure and almost translucent skin. She was a vamp feedbag all right. “I’m Grateful Knight.”

  “Oh, good.” She lowered the sign. One finger shot up to sweep a dark lock off her forehead. “You can pick up your next of kin outside of baggage. They’re loading him into the car for you. A man will meet you with the keys.”

  “Next of kin? You mean Julius,” I whispered.

  Her eyes shifted nervously from side to side. “Uh, I know it’s hard to say goodbye.” She scratched the side of her neck. “Baggage claim.” Without another word, she was gone.

  * * * * *

  As it turned out, a car was waiting for us outside the baggage claim area. Once we’d picked up our luggage, including two rather pissed-off familiars, an ogre handed me the keys to a lovely black hearse parked in the no parking zone.

  An elderly woman exiting the building beside me hesitated at the sight of the hearse. “I am sorry for your loss, dearie,” she said before climbing into a waiting cab.

  I slid behind the wheel, Polina climbing into the passenger’s seat beside me. Rick and Logan sat behind us, freeing Poe and Hildegard from their travel cages.

  “Have you any idea how humiliating that was?” Poe said. Hildegard squawked her support at his side.

  “I know, Hildie, but it was the only way. It would take you two days to fly here on your own.” Polina pouted and scratched Hildegard behind her fluffy white head.

  I watched the show of affection as witch and familiar reunited and glanced at Poe. He met my eyes and pooped on the backseat.

  “Ew.” Logan scooted toward his door. “Grateful?”

  “Poe! What the hell?” I said.

  “It was a long flight,” he protested. “Frankly, I have no idea how Hildie is containing herself.”

  Polina rolled down her window and whispered to the owl, who promptly exited the vehicle. “Well, go ahead,” she said to Poe. “Meet us at the hotel.”

  To his credit, the raven checked for my approval before following out the window.

  “Where to now?” I asked, handing Rick a cocktail napkin I’d tucked in my pocket to clean up after Poe.

  “Motel Astoria. It’s about a two-hour drive. Take your time. We won’t want to visit our sister un
til our muscle wakes up.” She nodded toward the coffin in the back.

  I turned the key and carefully pulled into traffic. “Should one of us check that he’s in there? We wouldn’t want to be driving off with someone’s misplaced dead uncle.” I giggled.

  The sound of the lid lifting had me glancing over my shoulder. Rick peeked inside the coffin. There was a sizzle, some smoke, and then the lid dropped abruptly.

  “It is him,” Rick said sheepishly.

  Logan’s smirk filled my rearview mirror. “It’s probably a good idea that none of us mention how he got the burn on the back of his hand, for Rick’s sake.”

  I took the scenic route to the coast, stopping only to buy a change of clothes and some sundries outside the city. The hearse was anything but discreet. It was like driving a flashing billboard alerting others to our suspicious circumstances. Everyone stared. A few people offered their condolences. One asked quite accusingly why we’d stopped to shop with a coffin in the back. I was relieved when we were back on the road.

  Twenty minutes from Astoria, it started to rain. “Uh-oh,” Polina said.

  “What? The rain? This is one of the wettest places in the continental US. From what I read, it rains more than it doesn’t.”

  “We’re in water witch territory,” Polina said. “It could just be rain. Or it could mean Kendra knows we’re here.”

  The rain fell harder on the top of the hearse. To me, the rhythm resembled drumming fingers. I raised an eyebrow at Polina, and she turned her face toward the roof.

  “Yeah. I’m thinking she knows we’re here.”

  Chapter 18

  The Axe

  The Motel Astoria seemed like the type of place that rented rooms by the hour, and an hour in one of their rooms was sixty minutes too long. By the time we parked under the cracked robin’s egg blue sign, it was raining so hard the wipers couldn’t keep up.

  My phone rang, and I retrieved it from my back pocket. Logan tapped me on the shoulder before I answered.

  “I’ll go,” he said, pointing at the motel door marked office. He dashed out the door.