eldritch files 07 - elemental blood (23 page)

Ceridwen greeted him at the door with a cup of hot black coffee. "Just help yourself, Detective," she said with a smile and pointed to the sideboard, laden with food.

Crwys was going to say thank you, just as his stomach growled. A few snickers and he grabbed a few donuts to go with his coffee. Yeah, a cop and donuts probably looked like a stereotype, but he needed the sugar. He sat in the chair Arden gestured to, at her left at the table. Sipping his coffee, he put his elbows on the table and looked at Arden. “How’s Riven?”

Arden sighed as she placed her finger tips on the coffee mug in front of her. She wasn’t eating. “He’s resting. His wounds are intense enough that we’re having to heal him in stages. My Coven’s healers need to rest as well. But I think he’ll survive. When he wakes, I hope to question him, learn more about what happened with Brahms and Yolyn and the wolves.”

Crwys nodded and choked down a couple of donuts, but his thoughts kept returning to Sam. Was she eating? Had she eaten anything? Was she in pain? Had she slept somewhere comfortable? He hated that he couldn't tell. He couldn't sense anything. This was more unbearable than when she was out with Bastien.

"Morning," Jack said as he stumbled in. He still looked tired with circles under his eyes. Jack had been learning to control his shifts a bit better, but the power needed to do this took a lot out of him. Ben had this ability and was now officially the pack's Beta. Because Bastien felt responsible for Jack's transformation, he'd adopted Jack as his own and was now training him to be a leader.

Kyle stood and the two embraced by the buffet. Arden looked on with a slight smile on her lips before she turned to Crwys. "We haven't located her yet."

He wasn’t sure if Arden said that because of the look on his face when he watched the two lovers embrace. But Arden could be perceptive that way. He sat back as Jack helped himself to the food. "I know."

"But she's not dead," Ivan piped up.

"No, she's not dead," Crwys answered. "I would know. The fact it's hard to reach her terrifies me. Either it means she's being shielded or…" He looked at Ivan. "She's not here."

"You mean not here as in physically," the Cyber Witch said. "Like she's in Faerie?"

"Could be," Crwys said. He ran his fingers through his hair. "What I'm still trying to understand is why Tas sent us in there to rescue Riven." He slid his gaze from Ivan to Arden. “Have your people learned anything?”

“No. But I’ve been giving that a lot of thought myself. The only thing I can come up with moves along the same logic you and Levi used. Tas is in that thicket because she chooses to be. She felt Riven’s life was the most important. She’s protecting him.” She shrugged. “It might have something to do with his bloodline.”

“I’m not following,” Crwys said. Everyone at the table was quiet, listening.

Arden paused. “Feyn and Goblins, those offspring from the Leanan and Daoine Sidhe, possess greater power than their separate lineages. That power flows through their blood. I spoke with Tzariene an hour ago and it’s her guess they kept him alive because his blood is Elemental Blood.”

“What is that?” Ivan asked.

“Simply blood that contains the five elements. It’s what gives these offspring their power. Feyn and Goblins are wanted throughout all the worlds because of the healing properties of their blood, according to Tzariene. I think…” and she looked at everyone. “Yolyn was keeping Riven alive as a backup if they couldn’t get to King Satar. She might believe the boy’s blood could cure Lethe’s curse.”

“Jesus….” Someone muttered.

“Then,” Kyle began. “Some of those wounds…Cerridwen said it looked as if they’d been injecting him…but what if they had been syphoning instead?”

“You mean drawing blood?” Dharma said.

Arden nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised. My people tell me Yolyn was hit with one of Tas’s arrows, but she survived. How else could this happen?” She put her hands flat on the table. “I think this is why Tas wanted him rescued. Not only to save him, but to insure they couldn’t use him as their own fountain of renewal.”

Crwys couldn’t find any fault in anything Arden said. It made sense to him. Artemis…Tas…would look out for those around her who couldn’t defend themselves. He formed a question for Solomon and then looked around. "Where is Solomon?"

"Tranquilized." Arden sat back. "I don't know what it is you did to him, but he's become obsessed with something called the Dragon's Eye. I figured…we handle one crisis at a time. Don't worry, he's fine."

Kyle leaned forward, obviously not worried about his mentor. “Aunt…you said Riven’s blood could cure Lethe’s curse.”

“It might. We don’t know for sure.”

Kyle looked at Crwys. “Then I say we use it to trade for Sam.”

“We can’t take that man’s blood without permission and just do that,” Dharma said. “We’d be no better than the Risi who were using him.”

“I can do it,” Crwys spoke up. He had already been toying with the idea and a quick look at his watch sealed the decision for him. “I’ll take responsibility. Tas had us rescue
him
, not the King. That might be because even she can’t get to him, or,” and he looked at everyone at the table. “She knows what Riven’s blood can do. She’s given us the means to fight back.”

Crwys felt he was right. This seemed like something Artemis would do, but mostly it felt like the God Mother’s hand was on the button. If there was one thing he knew about the All Mother…it was that she was always steeped in machinations that would make Machiavelli proud. The world was not built on an individual's fate by chance, but on the whims of the Creatrix. So what was her endgame in this? Other than the death of a disappointing child?

And what did Samantha have to do with this crap?

Crwys had slammed his fist on the table in an act of frustration without realizing it. When he heard the loud bang, he looked at everyone. Their eyes were wide. "Sorry."

"We'll find her, Crwys," Arden said.

Jack suddenly dropped his fork with a clank and stood up just as a commotion came from the other room. Bastien came barreling in, dressed in little more than a smile.
Geez…doesn't that guy have clothing?

"My Lady! I told him he needed pants!" Ceridwen said as she rushed in around him.

But if Arden noticed, she didn't show it. She kept to her chair, but all her attention was on the Wolf's face. "Bastien?"

"They're on the move. Over twenty Nisse soldiers. And they have Tasoula with them." He looked at Crwys.

Crwys was on his feet, tossing his napkin on the table. "Where are they?"

"Approaching Gypsy Gardens."

"What?" Arden put her hands on the table. "Are they readying for an attack?"

"
Non
," Bastien said. "They are moving through the woods to the cabin."

Crwys looked at Arden. "The Cairn."

She pushed herself up as two of her coven helped her stand. "Why would they be approaching the Cairn?"

“No idea,” Crwys said as he stood.

“Bastien, find out if they have reinforcements hanging back. We're heading out there."

"
Oui
," Bastien said and started to turn. He hesitated before he looked at Crwys. The two men stared at one another for a few seconds before Crwys said, "We haven't found her yet."

The Alpha seemed to accept the answer and left.

Crwys and Levi joined Arden in her golf cart as Levi drove it over the grounds and south to the cabin. The rest of the coven followed in a more…unconventional method. Crwys could sense them, but he couldn't see them. Ivan and Dharma remained at the house.

"Arden," Crwys said as Levi steered the cart down the path. "Exactly how are they able to enter your land if you have the proper wards up? I mean, if they can go there, can't they just waltz into the mansion?"

"My wards don't extend to the Cairn, Crwys." Arden rubbed at the back of her neck. She half yelled her response to be heard over the wind and hum of the cart. "I can't prevent anyone from entering and exiting that Cairn. Not my creation."

"But they can get to it?"

"It's got its own natural ease way. Magic and land works on its own rules." She made a face. "If I could bend those rules, I would. But it's not that they're on my land that worries me as much as what they're doing with the Cairn."

"Well, all they can do is summon Faeries, right?" Levi yelled back.

"That's just one use. Cairns are gates themselves and can be turned into conduits because they usually stack with ley lines. And that one definitely does."

Crwys held onto the side pole as Levi made a sharp left through the path. "What does that mean?"

"Not sure yet. I just have this hunch if they try to end the Quest, if Lethe doesn’t show up and kill them, Medbh might."

Levi stopped the cart a good distance from the cabin. Crwys sensed the Wolves surrounding them in the woods. He also sensed the enemy's Wolves. It was a different sense though, as if moving from comfortable to foreign. The Aces had a certain scent to them that his Dragon nose could identify.

But this other pack…they smelled…

Wrong.

He led the way around the cabin to the side where the Cairn Circle was visible. Through the years Arden's coven had planted and tended an actual Circle just outside the ring of toadstools that made up the Cairn, the portal to the Faerie World. Tall hedges surrounded it, clipped and pruned to create a barrier to the human eye.

“We need to keep to this side of the hedges. They form a barrier between instances.” She smirked. “I’m happy Ceridwen came out here last night and regrew some of the hedges, since a knuckle head in a large car knocked a few of them down.”

Crwys wasn’t sure what that meant, so he concentrated on the hedges. The only opening faced the path and that’s where Crwys moved along with Levi and Arden. Arden moved slower than usual, so he picked her up and carried her to the outside of the Circle. They used the thick hedge as a blinder between them and the Nisse inside.

Looking in, Crwys spotted the lit balefire and the mirror, which had been uncovered, in the center. Because the Faerie can't place their feet upon the earth without turning to ash, Arden had erected a mirror to use as a portal from one realm to another. One like it existed in two places in
Alfheim
. One with Medbh, the Winter Queen, and with Tzariene, the Summer Queen. Through these mirrors, communication between the realms could be achieved without either humans or Faerie venturing into the other's grounds.

Now that mirror lay bare and filled with smoke. Arden hissed and leaned around the edge to get a better view. Levi had his gun unholstered and ready. Crwys motioned him to put it away. If things came to a fight, he was ready to use Dragon Fire. He no longer worried about hiding himself from them. All of his thoughts centered on one thing—finding Samantha.

But first, he had to stop the Nisse from whatever it was they were doing.

"They're summoning," Arden hissed at him as she ducked back behind the hedge entrance.

"A Faerie?"

"I can't tell. I just know that incense." She wrinkled her nose. "It's close to what I use for calling on Medbh…but there's something different…"

He watched her expression for a few seconds and didn't like what he saw. "Arden?"

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"What?"

"Elemental Blood is part of a Daoine Sidhe."

He frowned. She’d already said as much at the table. Crwys glanced back into the Circle and saw a puff of smoke as the mirror began to glow green. "What are they doing?"

"I told you they’re summoning. I’m just a bit afraid of
who
they’re summoning."

"Spit. It. Out." He didn't like what was happening with that mirror.

"There is another, like Riven, they might have learned about."

"Who? How?" Levi hissed next to her.

"
How
would have been from me when they were torturing me…" She winced at Crwys. "
Who
would be—"

There was a crashing noise and a sort of explosion. Crwys ducked as his arm ignited in Dragon Fire, a natural protective reaction to the sudden blast. He'd dropped to his knees as the area filled with smoke and crawled over to Arden and Levi. They were okay, or as much as he could tell through the smoke.

"What the hell?" Ashur hissed through Levi's voice.

Crwys chanced a look between the hedges again and saw several of the Nisse stand, and heard them coughing as the smoke cleared around the mirror. The glass was cracked and irrevocably broken. Glass pieces lay on the grass like tiny pools of silver reflecting the blue sky above.

And standing in front of it, staggering just a bit as if he'd been hit, was a young man. Medium build with broad shoulders and slim form, topped by a mop of brown hair. When he put his hand up and cast a light in the darkness from his palm, a dozen Risi arrows were trained on him.

When he turned around far enough for Crwys to see his face— "Son of a bitch."

"What?" Arden said as she moved forward and looked through the hedges. "That’s who I was afraid they’d summon."

"Who?" Levi said as he stood and bent forward to look.

Crwys sighed, shaking his head. "Dags McConnell, Goblin and Grimoire," he muttered.