Chapter 45

Asire.

We walked into Reggie’s apartment and she immediately headed into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of rum. She didn’t drink a lot normally, but she took a large gulp today. Guess the stress was starting to get to her. After she had gulped down a second equally large sip, she set the bottle aside and stretched her neck.

“We need a new safe house,” she started. “What do you think the chances of them destroying our current one is?” she said while looking at me.

I hid my wince. All my artwork was in that house and sure, in the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t matter. But it was my artwork…and it hurt to think it would get ruined. However, I shoved it aside because there was a toddler I needed to find, no matter how badly I got hurt along the way.

“I’d say fifty/fifty,” I told her. “Depending on whether it’s more important for them to get back to wherever they’re staying or to throw a temper tantrum.”

Reggie smirked. “With everyone scattered, we need to end this quickly. They could spread throughout the city and start slaughtering us because they can sense us and we can’t sense them.” She turned to Wynn. “You’ve got a way to fix that, I hear?” Her eyes were sharp on him and he squirmed. Reggie was laid back most of the time, but she had a streak of ruthlessness that scared most people.

Loki, who had been carefully avoiding me all day since we kissed earlier, stepped up to defend his Family member. “Yes, he does,” Loki said. “It’s not a surefire way, but it’s the best option we’ve got.”

Reggie nodded. “Good… Good. What do you need?” Again, those sharp eyes were on Wynn, only he’d had a chance to recover from the first time and he met her eyes head-on.

“Do you have a legion in the city who can work magic?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest in a clear challenge.

Reggie raised a blonde eyebrow. “No, we do not. What do you need one for?”

“I don’t, really,” he said. “But I do need a spell-caster if I can’t get a legion. Do you know one of those?”

“Not since my friend died a couple of years ago,” Reggie told him. “However, I do know someone who is on good terms with all the Orphans.” She turned to me.

I nodded, grabbed my phone and stepped out into the hall while Wynn started naming other things. Spell-casters had more ritual magic and actual spells than legions or demons did, but most of the items could be found in your everyday home. Like spices and bowls and things.

Halfway down the hall, I stopped and leaned against the wall. I tapped on the screen of my phone and then waited. It rang four times before someone picked up. The wrong someone. “Hello?” a woman’s voice answered. “Basil’s phone. Who’s calling?”

I raised an eyebrow and glanced out the window. It was barely dinnertime, so I had to assume this was just one of his wolves who stayed at his house regularly. Otherwise, I’d feel obligated to tell Reggie about this so she’d have ammo the next time we dealt with Basil. Giving Reggie ammo is sorta like keeping the safety off a gun.

“This is Asire,” I said. “One of the legion Orphans. Is Basil there, by any chance?” And be very careful with your answer, little girl. Not in the mood to play games. Werewolves can be… Territorial, if you wanted to be polite. Jealous to the point of insanity if you didn’t.

There was a pause and then I heard her muffled talking, as if she covered the speaker of the phone, but not really well. The summary was pretty easy to figure out. “Should I let this girl talk to Basil?” asks phone girl. “Do you wanna risk him getting angry?” asks non-phone girl.

It took nearly two minutes for them to decide it was best not to piss me off. I didn’t know most of his wolves, but I’d discovered most of them know me, for whatever reason.

The girl called out to Basil. It was as he took the phone from her that the door to Reggie’s apartment opened and Loki stepped out to check on me. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Basil picked up, “Hello? Asire?” he said.

Loki’s mouth closed and an odd look came over his face.

“Yup,” I said. “We need a spell-caster at Reggie’s gallery.” I didn’t do well with small talk and didn’t have the time, so why bother with pleasantries? Besides, he knew me well enough to understand I didn’t really care about how his business was doing or how his day had been. Harsh as it may sound.

“What do you need a spell-caster for?” he asked, caution in his voice.

“To be honest, I don’t really know,” I said. “I was told to get one and you're the one who knows them well enough to do that.”

Loki still stood in the hallway and I could feel his eyes on me. He had crossed his arms over his massive chest and it was hard to ignore with the way he was staring. I decided to be concerned about that later.

Basil sighed. “Asire, I’m not sure—”

“Well, here’s the thing,” I cut him off. “We need a spell-caster that can help our spell-caster break whatever magic’s got Millie concealed. Do you know Millie? She’s a two-year-old with pink hair and big blue eyes, screams in excitement whenever she sees me. Wears lots of dresses that show off her tiny feet. Anyway, she’s been kidnapped and we aren’t cool with that and we need to find her and in order to do that we need a spell-caster. We might have found her earlier, and that’s a really big ‘might’, except that, for some reason, the vampires and the werewolves started attacking us and isn’t that a bitch?”

“Asire—”

I cut him off again. “So these assholes, werewolves mostly, broke a bunch of stuff and injured some people, including yours truly and as a side note the stitches have started itching as stitches will do and it’s really irritating me. Anyway, now there’s thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to Reggie’s gallery, we’ve gotten in even worse with the vampires, can’t really trust the werewolves anymore and still have not found the little girl. But here’s the thing, most of us are fairly decent people. Enough that we feel the need to help when we can anyway, even those of us that are really, truly dicks. So when we found the poor werewolves who’d been captures and hurt by the vampires—”

“Asire—”

“—we got them out, because it would have been cruel to leave them behind. And we brought them home, where they wanted to be. According to Reggie we gave one of your wolves her sister back and that’s really priceless, don’t you think? Anyway, by my estimation, I’d say that these wolves or their leader owes us one, don’t you think?”

Silence.

I sensed more than saw Loki’s amusement at my rant. Since he still hadn’t let up with his tense stance, I ignored him.

“I do owe you one,” Basil finally said. “But,” he continued before I could congratulate him for being a smart guy, “If I was to bring one of my allies in to help you, it would make it look like I’m taking your side over Debienne’s. The only reason this city hasn’t fallen to its knees is because our three races pretty much ignore each other.”

“I think you underestimate what this city is capable of,” I said.

“I will make up for everything I’ve done and the harm I’ve caused,” he promised. “But I cannot in good conscience bring a spell-caster to you, knowing all the problems it will cause in the future.”

We were both quiet as I thought through his words. It would cause problems later. He wasn’t wrong, but we were talking about a child. I had no doubt that he had faith we would find her and that was why he was doing this. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t about to let him off that easily.

“All right,” I said congenially. “Then let’s take this route. Either find me a spell-caster willing to help and bring them here or Reggie and I will declare open season on your ass and I’ll sit back and watch the massacre. We’re at Reggie’s gallery in case you forgot. You’ve got half an hour.” I hit the end button and put my phone in my pocket. Then turned to Loki.

He had a surprised look on his face. “That was… harsh.” Funny, he didn’t sound bothered by it. More like he was impressed.

“Desperate times,” I said.

Loki nodded his head and looked around the hall. “He’s interested in you,” he said casually.

“What? No he’s not,” I said. We barely even knew each other. Sure that hadn’t stopped my attraction for Loki, but…he just wasn’t. I met him when I was sixteen and though that wouldn’t stop a legion, it would bring a werewolf up short.

Loki smirked and there was this look on his face. I was not good with these situations, but I could have sworn the look was…satisfaction. I narrowed my eyes at him and thought seriously about decking him in the jaw. Luckily for him, I decided that would be a childish move. Unlucky for him, I also decided this was the perfect place for a quick chat. “So about what happened earlier,” I said.

His face closed up so quickly that I had all the information that I needed on the subject. He thought it was a mistake. Whatever went down between us wasn’t what I thought. He wasn’t interested in me in that way. I expected to feel relieved that I didn’t have to deal with all my problems now. Instead I was just sad.

Sucking in a silent breath, I said, “It never happened. ‘Kay?”

An odd look came over him. Partially relieved and partially angry. I didn’t give him the chance to comment, though, marching down the hall and back into Reggie’s apartment. Ella had her hands clenched into fists and there was life in her eyes for the first time since Alain’s head was blown off.

It was her that asked if I was successful.

“Better have been,” I said. “I kinda promised I’d get him killed if he didn’t help.” I shrugged.

Reggie smiled. “You’re wonderfully chaotic, you know that?”

I shrugged.

“I’ve got everything I need,” Wynn said, looking down at his bag.

He had pulled a bunch of stuff out of it. From where I stood I could see pepper, salt and what I thought was tobacco. Most everything else I didn’t recognize, but I wasn’t a cook. The last time I attempted making something that didn’t require following the instructions on the back of a box, my kitchen nearly burned down.

“Will you need to be outside for this?” Reggie asked.

“It’d make it easier,” Wynn said.

Spell casting could be dangerous indoors. I’d never seen anything, but I’d heard stories. So many stories…

Reggie nodded, turning on her heel and moving toward her bedroom. “Be out in a second,” she said, closing the door behind her. When she came out again, she was wearing jeans and a thick t-shirt plus sneakers that probably coast more than my entire outfit combined with Lixa’s.

“How long does he have now?” Lixa asked.

I checked my phone. “Fifteen minutes.”

We were mostly silent as the clock counted down. Loki was irritated about something and it was getting worse the longer it went on. Ella was the tensest. If she lost her daughter over this no one could save the werewolf. The rest of us were tense. If Basil didn’t take my threat as seriously as I meant it, we had to scramble for plan two that hopefully didn’t involve some kidnapping of our own.

When it was down to five minutes, no one was sitting down. Half of us were pacing along Reggie’s apartment and the other half were standing quietly. I was among the latter. I was also thinking about the best way to make Basil regret it if he ignored me.

There was two minutes left on the clock when my phone went off. I answered and managed to keep my voice smooth and even. “Hello?”

“We’re downstairs,” Basil said and hung up.

I resisted the urge to smirk. I shouldn’t be proud of myself for getting this taken care of, but… Well fuck it. I was. I felt as if someone who was willing to risk the well-being of a toddler, even if it meant putting others at risk, deserved to get put in their place. Besides, Basil seemed to have forgotten a very important fact about the Orphaned legions. We did not forgive easily if we forgave at all.

Half of us climbed onto the elevator and the other half took the stairs down. We all got to the bottom floor around the same time and trooped out the doors together. That must have been a sight for Basil, who was leaning into the window of a small truck. Rattier than mine by far, as well, so naturally I kinda wanted the driver to park by mine and make her look better.

Basil watched us for a few seconds before stepping away from the driver’s side door. He narrowed his eyes at Reggie, even though she hadn’t had anything to do with the threat I made, and crossed his arms over his chest. “Does this mean we’re even now?” he asked curiously.

“Not on your life,” Reggie said. “You’re just lucky I can appreciate the tight spot you found yourself in.”

He grimaced as the door opened behind him. A petite girl stepped around him. She was maybe five-four and thin to boot. Her arms were skinny, but had muscles running up them, hinting that she worked out a lot. Her eyes were a brown so soft they almost looked gold and her hair was red and hung to her chin. She wore a crimson dress that fell to her knees and knee-high black boots with yellow laces. She looked younger than everyone here. And Lixa was nineteen.

“Hello,” she said, her voice a soft lilt.

Before she could continue, Basil stepped up. “I’m staying until you’re done with her, understood?” Again his eyes were on Reggie.

It was kind of amusing really, how many people saw her or Henrik as the real threat. Outside the city, no one would think twice about how dangerous I was, but inside all those rumors that landed me here meant nothing.

“That’s fine,” Reggie said. “We aren’t going to hurt the girl, Basil. However, she might hurt you if you keep acting like this.”