14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Ailin

T he next morning, after saying goodbye to Opal and her viramore—they were staying at our home to do research—I walked out of the house with Seb behind me and came to an abrupt stop when a small voice said, “They’re not taking over our land!”

Seb jumped in surprise and grabbed his chest, but he relaxed quickly before I even understood what the hell was going on.

It took me a solid twenty seconds to figure it out. Bramble Wrinkleblossom, an elder sprite that lived on my coven land after Seb and I convinced his clan to leave the human playground they’d taken over, was standing on my porch, yelling at me.

Sprites were flower people as Seb said, and Bramble looked like he was made out of sticks. His body was a long stick with stick arms and legs and leaves as wings. And being an elder and in charge of his clan, he’d somehow grown the top of his stick head into the shape of a crown. So he looked like a stick with two big leaves and a crown. He was usually quite sweet, but when he was concerned about something, he always came at us with anger and yelling.

“Um, hi, Bramble. What’s up?” I was way too tired to deal with this right now.

He flew up to my face and hovered there. “You brought elves to our home, Sage! I won’t stand for it. They’re not taking our home from us.”

“For fuck’s sake, he’s always so dramatic, isn’t he?” Seb asked me privately.

“He really is.” Out loud to the sprite, I said, “Of course they’re not, Bramble. Do you really think I’d ever break my promise to you and your clan? I promised you safety here, did I not? I haven’t broken my promise in the fifty years you’ve been here, and I don’t plan on breaking it now.”

He harrumphed.

I continued on. “I would never let anyone take your home from you. The elves won’t go anywhere near your village. I can’t promise that they won’t stay because I haven’t had that discussion with them, and I don’t know if they have anywhere else to go. But I can promise that if they stay, they’ll be sworn to keeping the peace of the land and all of its creatures, including you. They’ll have to promise not to go on your territory without your say-so, alright?”

He stared at me for a long time, and I could tell he was still grumbling. Finally, he said, “Fine.” He pointed his little bow at me—sprites made their own weapons and slathered them with a poison, so I really didn’t want to get shot with one of his arrows. “But if they touch my land or my kin, I will end them.”

I didn’t want to promote violence between the two groups, but I wasn’t about to start a whole new argument with the sprite. “Fair enough. Right now, they’re stuck inside my shield, so you have nothing to worry about.”

He harrumphed again and stomped his little stick foot in midair. “Fine. Make sure it stays that way.”

“Will do.”

I watched the little sprite fly off toward the two guards he’d left at the bottom of the porch steps. I was glad they hadn’t come up on the porch because those two were a lot more trigger-happy than Bramble was, and the last thing Seb and I needed was getting shot by a sprite arrow. It would’ve knocked us out for hours—those things packed a punch.

Shaking off that encounter, I glanced at Seb. “Ready to go?”

“Yep. You drive.”

“Yes, siree.”

As we headed to the car, I glanced at the shed. Last night, I’d extended the shield to include a small area of grass so the elves could get some fresh air if they wanted. I felt bad trapping them in there like that, but with their torturer still on the loose, this was the safest way to not only protect my coven, but to protect the elves as well. If the person behind this was able to reach them from outside my coven’s wards, there was still nothing he could do because the elves couldn’t go anywhere. There was no way of getting through my shield, and the bastard couldn’t reach them because there was no scenario where he’d be able to get through my coven’s wards and onto coven land. None at all.

My land was the most well-protected in the entirety of Brinnswick, and likely, in the entire world. Although, I’d done an admirable job of ensuring my sons, Remi and Tan, who both lived in Gauhala, had fierce protections around them. And my grandson, Zaos, who lived out in another city in Brinnswick was protected just as well. But my coven land’s wards were old, so the magic had been building for decades. My sons’ and grandson’s properties couldn’t catch up time-wise, but they’d continue to grow in the same way.

So the elves were as safe as we could possibly make them.

We met at HQ with Alec and the rest of the BCA team that were on the mysterious Christmas decor attacks. Alec already had everything laid out in a conference room for us, and it didn’t take long for everyone to get there.

Alec stood at the head of the table and clapped his hands once. When everyone settled, he spoke. “Okay, so we know how the guy was doing this—they forced a troupe of elves to curse the holiday stuff—but we don’t know who this ‘they’ is or where they are. Hell, we don’t even know what they are, other than assuming they’re not human. I suppose they could be, but I have no idea what a human would do with all that life essence and fear energy.”

Jorah lifted a finger in the air. “I have some ideas about that. The only creatures I can think of would be an incubus or a vampire.”

“A vampire?” Bas asked. “What would a vamp do with all that energy?”

Toby broke in. “I’ve never done it myself, but I’ve been told that vampires can pull life essence into themselves. That’s essentially what we do anyway, only we access it through blood. They call them energy vampires, for obvious reasons. I don’t know exactly how it would be accomplished, but it’s something to consider.”

I tilted my head at him. “Do you know anyone older than you that we could ask?”

Toby stared at me for a beat, then shrugged. “Not really. I talked to Jules and Emrys last night, and neither of them know how to do it or know anyone that does. But I think you know someone, or at least, Bel and Tan do.”

My brow furrowed at that, but Seb made an “ah” sound before saying, “Anton. He’s ancient, according to Remi.”

I stared at my viramore for a moment before smiling and giving him a nod. “That makes sense. Maybe we should give him a call and find out how likely that is. I do think the incubus guess is our best bet, but we’ll have to double-check with Anton.”

“I can call Remi and get him to connect me to Anton,” Thayer offered.

Alec gave him a nod. “Do it.”

Thay nodded, stood, and walked out of the room as he pulled out his phone.

“I think we need to consult our books,” Jorah said. “There might be other creatures that can absorb life essence and fear energy.”

I gave him a nod. “Actually, I already asked Opal and Laneo to take a look. They’re going to grab Niya and her viramores too. One of them will give us a call if they find anything.”

Jorah nodded. “Perfect.”

I turned back to Alec. “Okay, so regardless of what he is, we need to know where he is more than anything.”

Alec tilted his head to the side, like he was giving me a point. “True. But I’m stumped on how to find him.”

“I… have an idea.” I cringed a little because I knew this wasn’t going to go well. Seb was going to hate it.

“Go on…”

“We set a trap.”

When I said nothing else, Alec rolled his eyes. “That’s all fine and good, Ailin, but what the hell would we use as bait?”

Here was the part Seb was going to hate. “The elves.”

I felt Seb’s anger, surprise, and concern through our bond.

Alec’s eyebrows rose. “You’d let us do that?”

I wasn’t surprised he’d asked that. For the past two decades, when I’d brought home a creature, I’d never let anyone use them as bait. That was the whole reason none of the others had suggested it before now. They knew—thought—I’d shut them down.

And normally, I would. But this wasn’t a normal circumstance. This person was attacking people, attacking families, attacking kids, all over the city, and some of them were seriously injured. It was only a matter of time before someone was killed, and at the scale of these attacks, I was afraid it was going to be a lot of someones. They were going to wind up killing a lot of people, and we needed to stop them before they did.

I gave Alec a nod. “Yes. We need to ask the elves if they’re okay with it, of course, but… yes, I think we should use them as bait.”

“Ailin,” Sebastian said, making me face him. “That’s way too dangerous. You know this. It’s why you’ve never let anyone be used for bait since…” He winced at that, and I sighed.

Someone had gotten hurt—they’d almost died—two decades ago by playing bait, and I’d shut that avenue down ever since.

There was no way I’d let a repeat of that incident happen again.

“I know, but we can keep them safe.”

“How? If this person sees a shield around the elves, they’ll just leave before we can catch them. If the elves aren’t shielded, well, that’s way too dangerous.”

“We give them their own magically induced stick or whatever we can get that has a shield spell stored in it. Then we have our agents posted all around so we can give each other and the elves a warning when the guy comes on scene. I’ll also be close to the elves so I can throw a shield around them if need be. We’ll have multiple ways of protecting them.”

“You really want to do this?”

I winced internally. “I don’t want to do this, no. But I think it’s our best, and really, our only option at the moment. The entire city’s at risk because we have no clue how many boxes of cursed objects were already shipped. For fuck’s sake, they could have an entire warehouse full of these things. And for all we know, these cursed objects have been shipped to other cities as well. We need to stop them.”

He waited a moment. “We’ll be right there?”

I nodded. “Yes. We can keep them safe.”

Seb made a face at me like he wasn’t so sure about that, then blew out an angry breath, faced the table with both elbows resting on it, and buried his face in his hands. I gave him a moment, and he eventually said, “Fine. I… see how that might work. I just… I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

I set my hand on his forearm. “Do you really think I’m going to let any of those little elves get hurt?”

Without removing his hands from his head, he turned his head to meet my gaze. “No, I don’t.”

I gave him a small smile, leaned in to peck his lips, and faced Alec. “So… what do you think? Should we move on with the plan?”

“You’re sure about this?”

“As sure as I can be.”

He gave a reluctant nod. “Yes. Let’s plan everything out, and when you get home tonight, you can talk to the elves. We’ll plan for tomorrow, but you let us know if that changes after you speak with them.”

“Will do.”

Thayer came back into the room, holding his phone out toward the center, saying, “Alright, Anton, you have Alec, Ailin, Seb, Jorah, Clover, Basil, Hiro, Toby, and of course, me. Can you repeat what you told me about vampires sucking in life essence?”

“Of course,” Anton’s voice came through the phone, and Thay set it on the table. “Hello, all.”

There was a chorus of greetings before Anton continued.

“They’re called energy vampires. It’s a rare skill, to be sure, but it is possible for a vampire to absorb life essence if it’s pulled out of a person. It’s something that takes a lot of skill and finesse, something that develops with age, so if you’re looking at an energy vampire, they’re sure to be hundreds of years old, if not older.”

My eyebrows rose as I absorbed that, then I cleared my throat. “Do you know of any vampires in Brinnswick that can do this?”

Anton was quiet for a full minute. “I… may know of a few possibilities, but no one in particular comes to mind. I don’t know any vampires that prefer using that method rather than feeding. Feeding is much easier, especially these days when we can buy bagged blood or go to a vampire bar where there are always plenty of willing humans.”

That was true enough. There were plenty of people, especially humans, that sought out vampires, wanting to be fed on, some hoping to be turned themselves. Vampires weren’t the scary monsters in the shadows anymore. They were out in the open, and plenty of people were fascinated with them.

Anton continued. “But I can make you a list of possible candidates so you can check them out and eliminate them from your suspect pool.”

“That sounds perfect,” Alec said. “Thank you, Anton. We appreciate your help.”

“Of course. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can assist you with.”

“Will do. Thanks again.”

Thayer grabbed his phone, took it off speaker, and put it to his ear, speaking quietly, before Anton could respond. He hung up quickly and retook his seat at the table.

Seb said, “I still think it’s an incubus.”

Bas shot him a grin. “Wanna take a bet? Incubus versus vampire?”

Seb snorted and waved him off. “Let’s figure out exactly what we’re doing tomorrow, yeah? We need to take every precaution to keep the elves safe.”

The kids and Alec all agreed, but I didn’t miss Thayer, Jorah, and Basil trying to get Hiro, Toby, and Clover to get in on the bet. Goofballs.

Right as we were leaving, another emergency call came in. More holiday toys and decorations were attacking people at a company holiday party in one of the high-rises downtown. It was a large business—an advertising firm or something—in a large building with lots of people.

The bastard must’ve had some boxes of cursed objects hidden somewhere else. That, or these things had already been shipped out before we’d shut down the factory yesterday. Fuck.

B y the time we got home, I was worn out… again. This had been another absolute mess when we’d arrived. We’d taken care of it, but now we were even more convinced that this incubus or vampire or whatever they were had a warehouse, or more than one, filled with more cursed objects.

Which meant we’d be getting even more calls like the one today.

We needed to sleep while we could so we’d be ready when we did.

But first, I had some elves I needed to talk to.

“Are you sure about this?” Seb asked me as we walked over to the elf shed.

“Yes. I think it’s the best way to stop this guy.”

He stopped me with a hand on my arm. “Are you sure we can keep them safe?”

I met his gaze. “Yes, baby. I’m sure.”

He blew out a long breath. “Alright. Let’s get these guys on board then.”

Nimeroni saw us coming, and she came up to the edge of the shield. Since it would be awkward standing on the outside while she was inside it, I stepped through with Seb right behind me.

I smiled at the little elf who’d been more helpful than the others and spoke in Fae’lee. “I wanted to talk to you about catching the person who bound you.”

I wasn’t about to call that person their master like the poor elves had been saying because that was absolutely disgusting. No one should own another person, for fuck’s sake. And yeah, elves were small, but that didn’t mean they weren’t intelligent creatures who deserved autonomy.

An expression of fear crossed Nimeroni’s face, but she steeled herself and gave me a nod. “How can we help?”

Well, that was the perfect invitation, wasn’t it?

Still, a bit of guilt crept in. I didn’t want to make any of these elves face their torturer ever again. But did we have a choice?

I took a breath and went for it. “We need to capture this… person.” It was incredibly frustrating that the elves couldn’t tell us anything about the person who’d kept them captive. We didn’t even know how long they’d been under the spell. “But the only way we know how to find them is… if he thinks he can get you back—he wouldn’t be able to. We won’t let him touch you or hurt you in any way, I promise. But… we kind of need some… bait.” I cringed.

“That’s definitely the way to get her to help us,” Seb said in my head as he sighed out loud.

“Shut it, you.”

He snorted in my head, managing to hide it on the outside.

And Nimeroni simply stared at me for the longest time.

It made me feel terribly guilty.

“We would only need a few of you to come with us, and we’ll give you shield spells and other defensive magical items to keep yourselves protected. And Seb and I will be hiding right beside you. As soon as they show up, I’ll put a shield over top of you all to keep you safe while the rest of the BCA close in on them and take them down.”

She waited a few more seconds before she asked in a quiet, fearful voice, “You’ll keep us safe?”

“I promise I will. You’ll be my top priority.”

“How many of us do you need?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe ten or so. We want him to detect where you are, and that will probably be easier if you’re clustered in a group. We want you to keep your younglings and elders here and anyone else you don’t want on the front line.”

She gave a nod. “And after? You’ll reunite us with our troupe?”

“Of course, Nimeroni. We don’t want to take you away from your family.”

“You promise we’ll be together after?”

“Yes. I promise.”

“And… you won’t take over our spell?”

I blinked at that, surprised. She thought I was going to bind her people to myself? I was sure a look of horror crossed my face. “Absolutely not. I would never do that to you, to anyone.”

She stared for a very long time before giving me a nod. “The sprite said you’re trustworthy. That you both have good hearts. I believe him.” She pointed at me with narrowed eyes. “But listen hard, Sage. If you keep us away from each other, we will find a way to destroy you. We will find each other again. We will stay together, no matter what.”

“I would expect nothing else, Nimeroni. Thank you for helping us. You have no idea how much your trust means to me.”

She took a breath, gave me a single nod, and turned on her heel. “I’ll talk to my troupe. Tell you how many are coming.”

“Thank you,” I called to her back as she disappeared inside the shed.

Seb shook his head, staring after her. “I have no idea how you always get everyone to listen to you. It’s like your superpower.”

I snorted at that. “I don’t have a superpower. Why would I need one when I have this?” I flashed my green magic, and that seemed to break the nervous tension Seb was carrying.

He snorted and shoulder-bumped me. “Show-off.”

“That’s me.”

He chuckled again, and I couldn’t help but smile with him, relieved for this small moment when so much was going on and stressing the both of us out.