Chapter 10

Eve

Just before dawn, we departed our seedy motel and headed for the old bottling plant. It was located at the edge of the Midway Dens, and we had to cross through the part of town that had been so busy last night.

In the early light, the streets were empty of drag racers, and everything was silent, save for a few pigeons that strutted from bin to bin, gorging themselves on discarded takeaways from the night before.

Lachlan and I hadn't spoken much, but I could feel his gaze constantly on me. It was almost as if the further we got from his suspicion that I was the murderer, the more he suspected me of other things.

I shivered, careful not to look his way.

Finally, I caught sight of the tall old factory building where Alia lived. The bricks on one side were painted white beneath a black script reading The Bottling Plant.

Creative name, that.

"Let's head for the alley," Lachlan said.

I nodded and followed him through the cold, dark streets to the narrow alley at the back. The brick buildings rose tall on either side of us, looming toward the pinkening sky. Fire escapes climbed the walls, rickety metal stairs leading to wooden doors. They covered the back of the building, zigzagging in rows down the side, which gave the wall the appearance of an old-school video game. The demon guards could be behind any of the doors, watching from the windows for intruders to approach.

"Demons," he murmured. "Can you smell them?"

I shook my head. I'd never had proper shifter senses, and I certainly didn't have them now that I'd spent so long relying on the fae magic I'd bought myself with potions.

"Four. Maybe five," he said.

Damn. Damian had said only three or four.

He looked down at me. "Use those wings of yours to get out of the way."

I bristled. "I can fight."

"Do so from the sky. Out of range."

Worry glinted in his eyes, and I frowned at him. "I didn't expect you to be so concerned. You think I might be the murderer."

"Just get out of the way."

I scowled but nodded. I fought best from the air, anyway, where I had a good vantage point for hurling my potion bombs. I called upon my magic and felt my wings flare to life behind me.

Lachlan watched them, his gaze unreadable.

I took off into the air, hovering high above the alley.

A low shout sounded from the building where the demon guards were hiding. They knew we were here.

My heart jumped into my throat. I called on the bag that I stored in the ether, then plunged my hand in and grabbed a potion bomb.

In the alley below, Lachlan stepped away from the wall and approached the fire escape stairs. Why hadn't he shifted yet? Surely he was safer in wolf form.

A demon stepped out onto one of the balconies about four stories up. With his pale gray skin, he would have looked almost human if not for the sawed-off horns and black claws. He raised a crossbow and aimed it at Lachlan.

Was the bolt silver tipped?

Fear rocketed through me.

Before he could fire, I chucked a potion bomb at him. The glass globe hurtled through the air, smashing against his chest and spraying him with brilliant red potion. He shrieked as the acid ate into him, dropping his crossbow and stumbling backward toward the brick wall.

While I'd been attacking him, four more demons had come out onto other fire escapes. Lachlan moved insanely fast, racing up the stairs and grabbing one of the attackers by the collar, then heaving him over the side. The demon screamed as he fell and crashed to the ground in a heap.

Now that Lachlan was on the fire escape, the other three demons couldn't get a clear shot at him from their positions on the other staircases. They'd have to fire their crossbows between the metal slats of the stairs, and it would never work.

They had a great shot at me, though.

One of them turned his bow up toward me, and my skin iced. As he fired, I flew upward as fast as I could, narrowly avoiding the bolt. He swore and reloaded, and I dove back down, gripping a potion bomb tight. When I was close enough, I hurled my potion bomb at his head. The bottle flew through the air, smashing against his skull and coating him in a pale blue liquid that froze him solid. He toppled forward.

On the fire escape below him, Lachlan charged at the other two demons who were scrambling down the fire escapes in search of a clean shot. As he sprinted toward them, deep green magic swirled around him, and he shifted midstride. One moment, he was a man; the next, he was a massive black wolf, bigger than any I'd ever seen.

He was magnificent.

He reached the demons a half second later and tore out the nearer demon's throat. The other demon tried to get a shot off, but Lachlan was too fast. He spat out the dead demon and lunged at the second, and blood sprayed as he went for the throat a second time.

I looked away, searching for more attackers, but there were none, thank fates.

The demons who'd fallen into the alley below were already starting to disappear. Unlike humans or other supernaturals, demons couldn't really be killed. Technically, they weren't even supposed to be out of the Underworld, though there were many ways around that rule. Once they were killed on earth, their bodies disappeared, and they woke up in whatever Underworld they'd come from.

It made cleanup easy, at least.

I flew down to Lachlan, who shifted back into his human form in the blink of an eye, the process hidden by a swirl of magic that matched his eyes. The older and more powerful you were, the easier it was to change forms. For Lachlan, it was as easy as breathing.

I landed next to him, and he turned to me, his chest heaving and his eyes still bright green with his wolf. His gaze flashed between my wings and my face, something unrecognizable in his expression. It was almost confusion, or perhaps recognition. Desire, definitely, like the heat of battle had warmed his blood as well as his fighting instinct. He stepped toward me. Heat flared in his eyes, and he looked straight at my mouth.

I gasped as I stared back at him , every inch of me prickling with awareness. His gaze never left my lips.

Was he going to try to kiss me?

Would I let him?

He stepped back abruptly, and I blinked. What the hell had that been?

"You did well," he said. "We should head to the top."

I nodded. "Of course. There could be more guards."

He turned and climbed the fire escape to the next interior door, ignoring the disintegrating bodies of the demons. I followed him, my mind racing. I had no idea what had just happened, but it had been a moment of some kind.

Just what kind of moment, I couldn't say.

We were halfway up the building when we reached the next level on the fire escape. The door was locked, but Lachlan gave it a swift kick, and we were in.

He held out a hand, indicating that I should wait while he checked the room.

His protectiveness was…weird.

I'd never had someone like that in my life. True, my friends wanted to protect me, but this had a different flavor to it. We protected each other. This felt decidedly one-sided. I gave him a second to check out the space first, then followed. I couldn't stand around forever like a damsel in distress.

The hallway inside was dark and quiet, old and industrial. The entire floor felt empty, and smelled it, too, dusty and disused.

"I think only the top floor is occupied," Lachlan whispered.

No doubt he was using his lupine hearing and super sense of smell.

Together, we quietly crept up the stairs, flight after flight. It was an easy journey, with no demons jumping out of the darkened corners.

Too easy.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, every instinct going on red alert as we reached the landing on the top floor. A dark door stood at the end, closed tightly.

The apothecary was on the other side, but there were no demon guards.

Ahead of me, Lachlan stepped forward, then stopped abruptly. I slammed into his back, letting out a whoosh of air. "What happened?" I asked.

"I'm stuck."

"Stuck?" I frowned. "What do you mean?" I looked down at his feet.

He tried to lift them but couldn't.

Shit.

I tried my own feet. Also stuck. A faint mist began to drift down from the ceiling, acrid and dark. I coughed, my lungs burning.

"A trap," he said.

Heart pounding, I crouched down to get out of the cloud of smoke and inspect the slick liquid that glued our feet to the floor. It coated the entire walkway, so taking off our shoes wouldn't do it.

In front of me, Lachlan crouched low as well. We were too close, bumping into each other, but we managed to stay out of the worst of the smoke.

"Do you know what it is?" he asked.

"Maybe." I knelt as low as I could and sniffed the shiny liquid on the floor. Almonds and evergreen—stomach-turningly strange, but also the signature scent of Kerinius sap, a rare ingredient that could be tempered to become the stickiest substance on earth.

Hope flared, and I dug around in the potion bag that I hadn't yet returned to the ether. "I think I can neutralize it."

"What about the smoke?" He coughed quietly, clearly trying to hide the fact that we were out there.

"Hold your breath," I said, "because there's nothing I can do about that."

Finally, my hand closed over a narrow cylinder of truth potion. The potion was rare and expensive, and a weird choice for a magically sticky floor, but its main ingredient, Arcanium Root, was going to come in very handy in combatting the Kerinius sap. Quickly, I sprinkled the potion around our feet. It made the sap glow briefly, then melt away into a sloshy liquid, which spread quickly and neutralized the entire floor.

Lungs burning from holding my breath, I grabbed Lachlan's hand and dragged him forward. The floor was still a little sticky, but not unbearably so.

As we reached the door, it swung open, revealing a pretty, dark-haired woman with a star tattooed by her eye. She wore a silk floral bathrobe and had her dark hair piled on top of her head. Seeing us, she leaned against the door frame. "Well, well, well. You've impressed me. Eve?"

I nodded and gasped, "Please let us in. We have only questions."

She frowned, looking between the two of us. "You killed my demons."

"I'll pay for replacements," Lachlan said. It was a good offer. It was expensive to pay sorcerers to get them out of the Underworld. "Or I can ask around if any shifter security forces want to relocate to Magic Side."

That was an even better offer. Shifters were the most coveted security forces out there, far better than demons. Way more loyal.

She raised her brows, clearly recognizing the value of the offer. "Well, then. Come on in."

She waved us forward, and we hurried inside. I gasped, trying to catch my breath, as she strolled around to stand in front of us and eyed me up and down.

"Was it the smell that allowed you to identify the sap?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Impressive." She turned and walked into the high-ceilinged loft. It was a massive space, decorated with modern furniture and thousands of books and plants. Faerie lights glittered among the rafters, and I wondered how she'd got hold of them. Huge glass windows provided a view of Chicago, and it had to be spectacular at night.

She turned back to us, her robe swishing. "What do you need? Surely not a potion, considering your skills, Eve."

"You know me?" I asked.

"Fae, with crazy-colored hair and an unusual skill for potions? I guessed. Also, I know your friend Seraphia."

"Nice to meet you—"

Lachlan cut right to the point. "We're here about a potion you sold. An Ageratina potion."

Her gaze turned dark, and she looked away, her face twisting slightly. "That one. Yes."

"It's a killing potion," I said. "You knew that when you sold it."

"Sold isn't quite the word I would use." She looked back, anger flashing in her eyes. "Did you not wonder why there were so many guards?"

"That's not normal?"

"That many? No. Usually, I have a couple. But ever since that miserable shifter came to my door and threatened me, I've been wary."

"A shifter?" Lachlan asked.

"Yes. And he didn't pay fair price."

I frowned at her, thinking how horrible it would be to have someone compel me to make something so dangerous. "What happened?"

"Nothing terribly surprising. He broke in and forced me to make the potion. I didn't see much of him, given the hood."

"What did you see?" Lachlan asked.

She watched him for a long second, chewing on her lip. "I want something in return."

"We're trying to catch a murderer," I said. "Surely you can help us."

She flinched slightly. "Who was murdered?"

"He was a right bastard," Lachlan said. "But he was part of my pack."

She heaved a sigh. "I'm not helping you without payment, though. Rent isn't cheap here, nor are my supplies."

I looked toward the corner, where she had several tables piled high with tiny bottles of ingredients and bundles of dried herbs. "What do you want?"

She looked right at me. "The recipe to your most valuable potion."

I frowned at her. "Which one is that?"

"You tell me. But it had better be good. Real good."

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I knew which one my most valuable potion was. Could I fake it and give her another?

"I'll make you take a truth serum," she said, "so I know it's the best one."

"You're ruthless," I replied, though I respected her for it.

She shrugged. "What can I say? Bitches get shit done."

Truer words.

I looked between her and Lachlan, debating, but the contest didn't take long. We needed this. I hiked a thumb at Lachlan. "Go out on the balcony. You can't hear this."

"Of course I can."

"These are proprietary recipes," I said. "I've never told another living soul this one, and I'm not telling you, too."

He frowned, then nodded and strode toward the huge glass windows that led to the front balcony. Once he was safely outside, I turned to Alia. "Can you set up a sound barrier? And you're going to need to make a blood oath not to share this with anyone."

She nodded, then went to her table and picked up a bundle of herbs that had been tied together with various colors of ribbon. I recognized the little bundle—I'd made several myself. It would make it so no one could hear what we said.

She picked up a lighter, a few vials of potion, and a pen and paper, then went to a tiny sitting area and gestured for me to follow. My heart thundered as she set us up around the little table, laying out a contract for a blood oath—no surprise a woman like her kept them on hand—and the vial of truth potion.

She lit the bundle of herbs on fire and made a circle around us. I felt it when the magic fell into place. Lachlan wouldn't hear.

"This had better be good," she said, pricking her thumb with a blade and letting a brilliant red drop of blood fall onto the contract.

"It is."

She handed the contract to me, and I scanned it, seeing that she would die a slow, agonizing death if she told my secret to anyone. "Glad to see you don't pull your punches."

She smiled. "I know what a good spell is worth."

"Then hold on to your hat." I picked up the truth potion and sniffed it, then knocked it back.

As I felt it fizz through my veins, I looked at Alia. We'd have been friends if we lived in the same place, I was sure of it. We had similar survival instincts. A willingness to do whatever it took. I could sense it in her.

"Well?" she said.

"I'm not fae." I called upon my wings, letting them flare behind me. Then I put my hand on the table and made grass grow straight out of the wood.

"Holy fates." Her eyes widened. "You're not fae, yet you can do that?"

"Yep. Lightning, too, and these wings aren't just for show. All fae magics." I tapped my pointed ears. "Not just a glamour."

Her breathing grew short, excitement glinting in her eyes. "You changed your species using potions. It should be impossible."

"It's not." I gave a wry laugh. "Not easy, but it's possible."

She shook her head. "You have to tell me."

"That's why we're sitting here." I held up my necklace so she could see it. "I've enchanted this with a potion. It's too volatile to drink, but if you wear an object that is regularly anointed with it…voila, you become fae." I reached for the pen and paper, then began to write out the recipe.

"What are you really, then? If you're not fae?"

"That's not part of the deal." I handed her the finished recipe. "That will only tell you how to change your species to fae. But if you work on it, you might be able to manage another species. Burn that paper after you've memorized it."

She scanned the ingredient list, her brows rising. "These are rare. Expensive."

"Which is why I'm always broke." Well, that and damned Danny. Poor bastard.

She shook her head, impressed. "Amazing. Truly amazing." Her gaze flicked to the window, where Lachlan stood with his back to us. "He believes you're fae, I assume."

"He'd better."