So I listened for heartbeats.
Felt Terric’s probably beating in time with mine. Felt Dessa’s. There were more in the buildings around us. A few in the only car that passed by. But in the warehouse, there was only one.
“He’s in there,” I said for Dessa’s sake.
We pulled our guns. I could use magic one-handed. I intended to do so.
Terric and I pushed through the door, walked step in step, guns raised.
The inside was gutted. Framework where walls once were, and maybe where walls were going to be. Plastic draped from the ceiling, rubble on the floor.
Noted it all absently. I was headed for that heartbeat. Eli’s heartbeat.
Corner room. To the left. There was a door here, hung half-shut. Terric kicked it open. He and I pushed into the room, arms straight, guns locked on the heartbeat.
But the huddle of clothes in the corner was not Eli. It was a girl, well, a young woman, and she was unconscious.
We lowered our guns and Terric crossed the room to her. “She the only one you feel, Shame?”
I listened, let the monster stretch out to feel lives it could consume.
“Yes. Do you know her?”
He had turned her face and was checking her pulse. The blood from her head was making it hard to see her features clearly, but she seemed faintly familiar to me.
“It’s Gillian,” Dessa said, rushing forward to her. “She’s my Hound. Holy shit. Is she okay?”
Terric ran his fingers quickly over her head, checked her neck, and finally pressed two fingers on her chest, just below her collarbone. He closed his eyes and I could see the yellow-white magic responding to his touch. Healing magic poured into her as he whispered a prayer.
Dessa inhaled a hard breath.
“He’s healing her,” I said. “She told you Eli would be here?”
She nodded. “Who would do this? She’s just a kid.”
“Stay here.” I strode through the building looking for any sign of Eli—what he’d been doing here, which way he’d left. Wished I’d brought a flashlight.
Screw it. I drew a light spell, filled it with magic. It wrapped around my left hand with scrolls of white that rolled upward like licking flames. It lit up a twenty-foot space around me.
“That’s . . . wow,” Dessa said behind me. So much for her staying with Terric.
I turned on my heel. “I asked you to stay with Terric.”
“He told me to go with you.”
“Jesus.” I made quick work of the place, figuring the light was going to be pretty easy to spot this time of night through the broken windows. I did not want a nosy neighbor calling the cops.
And then I saw the sign I was looking for. Next to a door that faced south, a glyph was drawn. It was the glyph for Direction, one of the finding spells. It was definitely Eli’s handiwork.
Right there in the dirt was something else: a turquoise bead. I bent, picked up the bead. I knew where I’d seen it before. It was from Davy’s necklace.
Chapter 26
Terric was on the phone with Dash when I walked into the room. “...wait. No, just a Hound, or you. That’s best.”
He flicked the phone off. “What did you find?”
“Sign that says Eli’s south of here. Direction glyph. Also this.” I walked over to him, dropped the bead in his hand.
He frowned.
“It’s from Davy’s necklace. Broken.”
“Davy was here. So was Eli,” Dessa said. “Great. But where did they go?”
“I don’t think Davy left willingly,” I said.
“Why?” Terric asked.
“His truck is out back.”
Terric swore. “He shouldn’t be hunting Eli alone in the first place.”
“Who’s coming for Gillian?” I asked.
“Dash. He’s close, and it won’t involve the Hounds. He’ll take her to the emergency room, then call the Den. Go search Davy’s truck in case he had a chance to leave something there for us.”
I didn’t even bitch at him for ordering me around. I crossed the structure then jogged out across the lot that was still mostly paved. The fact that the truck was parked so close and in the open bothered me. Davy wasn’t that reckless. So either he had thought there was no one inside, or he had come here, not looking for Eli, but looking for Gillian instead.
“What are you thinking?” Dessa asked. I remembered she was with me, glanced over at her.
Had her gun in her hand and was keeping an eye on the buildings around us.
I tried the door on the truck. Locked.
“It’s not like Davy to drive into a situation and park in the open. Makes me think he didn’t know what he was walking into. And that’s even less like him.”
“Conclusion?” she asked as I checked to see if the other door of his truck was unlocked.
“Maybe a trap. Coming to find Gillian, an injured Hound, and got ambushed.”
“I don’t think he was looking for Gillian,” she said, handing me a slim-jim from her duffel.
“Because?”
“Gillian was following Davy.”
“Is that what you hired her for?”
“Yes, but I told her not to engage.”
The lock popped and I pulled the heavy door open. “After the morgue, right? You saw how much Davy hated Eli, knew he’d go after him alone.”
“I had a hunch.”
“Wish you would have shared it,” I said, climbing into the cab.
“I didn’t know you as well back then,” she said, getting into the cab from the other side after I unlocked the door. “Or I would have done it differently.”
There were a couple gas receipts, insurance, registration, and random papers but nothing else that indicated Davy had left clues in his vehicle for us to find.
A car rolled up on the other side of the chain-link. Killed the engine.
Dash got out. He was wearing a dark leather jacket, dark jeans, and boots. And the vibe he gave off had nothing to do with the office. He looked like a man who could handle himself in a fight.
I suddenly wondered if he had combat training. Something I’d never asked him about, though I should have.
“Where’s Gillian?” he asked, coming up on me and Dessa.
“This way.” I took him in the building.
He and Terric managed to get Gillian awake and aware enough, she spoke, guessed the right number of fingers, and understood Dash was going to take her to the hospital. Even did some moving of her feet so we didn’t have to carry her.
After we got her settled in the back of Dash’s car, Terric paced back toward the warehouse.
“Listen,” I said to Dash. “I’ve kicked a few hives. I want you to be careful.”
“Which hives?” Dash asked.
“Black Crane.”
“Define ‘kick.’”
“There’s been a change in leadership, ’cause the other guy’s dead.”
He nodded. He knew what that meant. “Jeremy?”
“Haven’t gotten my hands on him yet. But I will. Don’t tangle with him. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Be careful,” I said.
He nodded. “Take care of him.”
Dash left and I strode over to Terric.
“Show me the glyph,” he said.
I took him to the south door.
“It’s Eli’s work,” Terric said. “But why didn’t he complete it?”
I looked closer. He was right.
“Maybe the better question is, who do you think he put this here for?” Dessa asked.
“Me,” I said the same time Terric said, “Shame.”
Which meant he’d left it undone so I could finish it.
I didn’t know that I liked his calling card. Yes, it was a Directional glyph. I figured it was a trap, but we wouldn’t know for sure until I triggered it.