Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell) (30 page)

“Maybe he’s Telly’s original source. Do you know where the guy lives?”

“Yes, I know.” Lon nodded and pocketed the vial. “Guess you and I will be paying Evan a little visit.”

•  •  •

My biggest worry about confronting Evan Johnson was that he’d be wielding some juiced-up knack, but Lon informed me that Evan didn’t have one. It was one reason why Lon suspected the guy had never been a regular attendee of the Hellfire Club’s monthly Succubi and Drugs parties at the Hellfire caves. “Hellfire members without any special gifts tend to be ignored,” Lon explained. “They’re outsiders.”

Like I needed another reason to hate that stupid club.

Evan’s house was a few blocks from the hospital. It was almost midnight, but I reasoned since Jupe had overheard Yvonne telling the guy she’d stop by his place later, he’d still be up.

We rang the doorbell. When the door swung open, we found ourselves staring down the barrel of shotgun.

“Lon Butler?”

The gun lowered to reveal a dark haired, paunchy man who looked to be a little older than Lon. He might’ve been handsome, but his T-shirt and boxers weren’t flattering, and his eyes looked tired and panicked. A wary gaze flicked my way, then over our shoulders. “You alone?”

“Nice to see you, too, Evan,” Lon said, then slugged him in the face.

Evan hollered as he staggered backward, dropping the shotgun to block his face.

This was not part of our plan.

“What the hell?” Evan managed to spit out as he stumbled and collided into a wall.

Lon shook out his hand. “That’s for getting my kid drunk.”

Evan pulled his hand away from his face and stared down at the blood covering his fingers. Lon had got him good, all right. And as he stalked Evan down the hallway, he began transmutating.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Evan shouted, holding up his hands in surrender. “It was Yvonne who encouraged it, I swear. And I wasn’t trying to put the moves on her, or anything.” He made a pained noise. “Jesus, Butler—I think you broke my nose. Please stop. I can’t . . . just, please.”

Lon’s horns were out now. I pulled the front door shut so no one would walk in on us.

As I did, Lon cornered Evan against the wall. “I don’t really give a shit what Yvonne does, but I could have you arrested. My boy is at home sick. And on top of that, you’re selling Yvonne
this
?” He pulled the red vial from his pocket and shoved it in front of Evan’s face.

Evan made a sobbing noise. “Get that out of here! I gave it to Yvonne—I don’t want any part of it anymore. Please!”

Lon stared at Evan for several moments, reading his thoughts. “What the—” Lon flinched. His head swiveled toward an open arch that led into a living room. “Jesus!”

I peeked around the corner, desperate to see what Lon saw. The living room was torn apart like someone had searched it: drawers pulled out, cushions removed, furniture broken.

And sprawled on the carpet was a teenage boy with a bullet between his eyes.

Telly.

I glanced at Evan. “You killed him?’

“I found him like this,” Evan argued. “Lon, you’ve got to believe me. Isn’t that how your knack works? Can’t you tell? I wouldn’t kill my own stepson.”

“Hold on,” I said. “Telly’s your stepson?”

“His mother and I are separated,” Evan mumbled, slumping against the wall as he looked down at the body. “He’s been nothing but trouble since the day I met him. But now this . . .”

“He originally stole the bionic elixir from you?” I said, remembering Telly’s words from the camp under the bridge.

Evan looked surprised. “You know what it does?”

“Your kid nearly killed us with his knack after using it. He robbed my bar in Morella. He’s killed other people.”

“Oh, God. That elixir . . . I wish I’d never laid eyes on it.”

I glanced at Lon.
Go on,
I encouraged without speaking.
Use your transmutated knack and get him to talk to you. If he resists, I’ll bind him.

Lon clamped a hand around Evan’s shoulder, causing the man to jump. “We need to know everything about the elixir, and you want to tell us.” He’d tapped down his anger and now sounded patient and coaxing. “Why don’t you start from the beginning, yeah?”

Whether or not Evan knew about Lon’s latent persuasive abilities, he didn’t resist. “It started at Thanksgiving. I’d just signed the separation papers. I hadn’t been to a meeting down at the Hellfire caves in months, but I didn’t have anything else to do. I somehow ended up in one of the Succubi rooms with David and whatever woman he was attempting to seduce that night.”

I stilled. “David Merrimoth?”

“Yeah. He normally wouldn’t give me the time of day, but we were all loaded, you know. Anyway, that’s where I first heard it mentioned. He was telling us about this rare elixir that amped up your knack. I didn’t see any that night. It was just a story, and I probably wouldn’t have thought about it again.”

“Keep going,” Lon encouraged. “When did you hear about it again?”

“Before we left the Succubus cavern, Merrimoth invited us to a party at his house. A private party—we were the only Hellfire members invited.” Evan wiped away blood trickling from his nose. “He’d never even spoken to me before that night. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. But when I showed up for the party, he couldn’t remember my name. He thought I was from the catering company. It was humiliating. I was going to leave, but he was showing off, making it snow inside his house. When he wasn’t looking, I sneaked upstairs and looked around. Found the elixir stash in his closet. Ten vials. I took five.”

“Out of revenge?” I asked.

“Not really. I thought if the elixir could do that for Merrimoth, maybe it could help me. Everyone in my family has knacks—I’m the only one without one. I thought maybe if I took the elixir, it would bring out something in me.”

“Did it?” Lon asked.

Evan shook his head. “I took a whole bottle. Nothing happened. My wife came over to get some things from the attic and caught me with it, so I told her what it was. Telly was with her. He must’ve overheard us arguing, because the following night he broke into my house and stole three bottles. Next thing I know, I’m hearing about all these crazy knacks being used to commit crimes in Morella. I knew it was Telly. He’s been in and out of juvie. Runs away from his mom’s house for days at a time. Kicked out of school twice.” He stared at Telly’s body, a look of pity on his face. “Stupid kid. If he would’ve just minded his own business . . .”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “If Telly stole it from you, and we heard him talking about going straight to the source to steal it, he couldn’t have been talking about Merrimoth. He’s dead.”

“No,” Evan said softly. “Merrimoth wasn’t the source.”

Lon groaned. He was seeing the answers inside Evan’s head before the man could get them out. And the way Lon looked at me, I knew it wasn’t good.

I looked at Evan. “Who’s the source?”

The question hung between us for a moment before he answered. “Dare.”

My world shrank. Hair on my arms stood on end. “Dare? How?”

Evan swallowed. “Merrimoth claimed Dare had some magician cook it up a few years ago. Merrimoth had the idea to stop administering the Transmutation Spell to new initiates of the Body.”

The transmutated higher-ups in the Hellfire Club formed the Body. Only thirteen seats, and Lon held one of them. At least he used to. He hadn’t been active in the club for years, and hadn’t attended a monthly full moon “meeting” since he took me along several months back. I don’t think either of us knew where he stood in the club now that I’d told Dare to screw himself.

Evan’s thin, rough voice sounded even wearier than he looked. “It was a way to be transmutated in public. No horns, you know.” He glanced at Lon’s, shrugging. “Merrimoth was complaining that Dare hoarded it, and it wasn’t fair, because it was Merrimoth’s idea. They’ve been on the outs since Dare punished him for . . .” Evan’s attention turned to me, realization widening his eyes. “You’re the girl who broke the summoning circles in the caves. The reason Merrimoth got punished.”

And the one who killed Merrimoth when he was jumping off the second-floor balcony of his house into the ocean, but I didn’t volunteer this information.

“Don’t worry about her,” Lon said.

“Sure, sure,” Evan mumbled. “Anyway, Merrimoth took it from Dare. He made it sound like Dare was clueless about the theft, but I guess Dare eventually caught on when he heard about stuff on the news with the robberies. When I heard, I knew Telly had been selling it. I tried to get it back, but he ran away again. Told his mother that a black car had been following him.”

Black car. Oh . . . fuck. I looked at Lon.
Dare’s been trailing me.

Evan touched his nose and winced. “Once I found out Dare was looking for the elixir, I just wanted to get rid of it. So when I saw Yvonne was in town, I thought, well—she lives in Florida, and she’d take it with her. Get it out of Dare’s territory, you know.”

“Why didn’t you just throw it away?” I said.

Evan scratched his arm, avoiding Lon’s gaze.

“Because he wanted to sleep with Yvonne,” Lon answered.

“I’m sorry, man. You don’t understand what it’s like to be in that club and watch everyone else having fun. Everyone else making friends. Everyone else getting the good jobs. I’m a nobody. Useless. No family. Separated. I’m almost fifty, and all I do is crunch numbers in a cube all day. I just wanted to be part of everything, just once.”

We all sat in silence for a long moment.

“If Dare had Telly killed, he’ll kill you, too,” I said.

“Don’t you think I know that? I was packing when you showed up. I thought Dare had sent you here. I need to get out of town. Please, I’m begging—let me get out of here.”

“What about Telly’s body?” Lon said. “You’re just going to leave him?”

“I was going to call my wife after I left.”

“You have any more elixir hidden?”

Evan shook his head. “Telly stole the rest. All I had was what I gave Yvonne.”

Lon threw Yvonne’s vial of elixir on the floor and crushed the glass beneath his foot. Red liquid seeped into the pale carpet. “It’s not right to leave the boy like this,” he said.

“Police will be able to tell the bullet didn’t come from your gun,” I added.

“I know, but what am I supposed to do? Tell them Dare’s behind it? Who are they going to believe? I have no evidence. I don’t stand a chance against him.”

Lon’s horns spiraled away. His fiery halo receded to its normal gold and green as he let go of Evan. “You can run, but if Dare catches up to you, you’re on your own. Don’t contact Yvonne again.”

“I won’t.”

Lon tapped my hand and spoke in a low voice. “Let’s go.”

“Good luck,” I told Evan.

He made a small noise, but didn’t look up from Telly’s body.

Outside, Lon rushed me into the SUV before driving to the end of the block and parking.

“What are you doing?”

“Watching Evan’s house. I want to see if anyone’s been trailing us. I didn’t hear anything when I was transmutated, but I just want to be sure.”

I peered into shadows down the street, searching for movement. “He sent us to Merrimoth’s to find the leak.”

“What?”

“Dare. He said he wanted us to find out why Merrimoth’s knack was amped up, but he already knew why—had to. Maybe he realized someone had stolen his elixir when he started hearing rumors about Merrimoth’s knack getting wilder. But when he heard about the crazy crimes in Morella, he knew he had a bigger problem. That would explain why he was so angry when we failed to get any information out of Merrimoth.”

“Then he heard your bar had been hit and knew you’d go after the robbers.”

“I first saw the black car outside Diablo Market. And I saw someone at the car rally when I was chasing down Noel in the parking lot.”

Lon stared out over the steering wheel. “He was already following Hajo before we went to the trailer park. Probably trailed you to Hajo’s apartment.”

“We led Dare to Telly.” Sure, Telly was an asshole, and I had every reason to hate him, but he was just a kid. A dark, nauseating feeling bubbled up inside me.

“If it wasn’t us, it would’ve been someone else,” Lon said. “Dare is petty. He’s big on retribution. Killing Telly was sending a message to Evan.”

Dare. That arrogant asshole had done nothing but make my life miserable.

He was the one responsible for all this. For Merrimoth. For Tambuku being robbed. For Kar Yee being hurt. For Telly’s path of destruction. At that moment, I even blamed him for Jupe getting drunk, and for pushing my hand to do what I did to Yvonne.

“Cady,” Lon said.

“Don’t defend him,” I snapped. “What about us? If he finds out Evan gave a vial to Yvonne, will he send a message to you by putting a bullet in her head?”

“No, he . . . I don’t know,” he admitted. “Dare isn’t the man I used to know. I don’t know how far he’d go to protect his secrets, and I don’t know how far he’d go to punish people who wronged him.”

“He’s already got a hate-on for me. Maybe he’ll just take me out like Telly.”

Lon grabbed my arm. “Like hell. I’ll kill him myself before that happens.”