“That’s why I want to get rid of the bodies, if they’re still there. If they don’t have the bodies, they can’t call on the spirits for help. It only works when the Morte Seer has a body to work with.” I paused, realizing that wouldn’t fix the problem. “I don’t know. Let’s eat and clear our heads and then think about it.”
As I bit into my sandwich, I realized I really wasn’t looking forward to going back to those woods. I had just added two more spirits to an already haunted park, and I wasn’t inclined to pay another visit to it. But I couldn’t just leave them there to be found. I wasn’t worried about the cops. Unless the Fae were nobility, they wouldn’t pay much attention. Just two more dead Cryptos. But a Morte Seer could ask questions of the dead, and even get visuals from them.
I polished off one sandwich and started on the other.
Angel retrieved the brandy bottle and refilled our glasses. We had been best friends since we were eight years old—twenty-two years ago we had met in grade school. Most of the Fae studied in their own courts, but I couldn’t because of my heritage, so my parents sent me to the local school, where I met Angel the first day.
She had shoved me in a mud puddle, and I dragged her down with me. After a scuffle, we were both sent to the principal’s office, soaking wet and covered in mud. Our mutual fear and dislike of authority spontaneously created a bond by the end of the day and after that we were fast friends. When my parents were murdered, Mama J. took over as a second mom to me. I sold just about everything that my parents owned, tucking what money there was left in the bank for when I would be on my own. I lived with Angel and her mother for three years, until I turned eighteen. Over the years I had done what I could to thank them and repay the debt.
DJ had come along when Angel was twenty. Mama J. had fallen in with a Wolf shifter, who had stuck around until he found out she was pregnant, and then he lit out. DJ had inherited his father’s blood, and Mama J. and Angel did their best to help him grow up in human society. They had befriended a couple lone-wolf shifters, asking for help in teaching DJ his heritage. But just like the Fae turning their back on me, the Wolf shifter society seldom allowed whelps—what they called crossbreeds—into their fold. They weren’t as cruel as the Fae, but neither did they look fondly on anyone who wasn’t of pure blood.
I knew that Angel still stayed in touch with the wolf shifters who had helped her and Mama J. “Do you think Ben and Lyle could help us? Do you think we could trust them?”
“You know how the shifters feel about the Fae, at least in general. I don’t think it’s a good idea. They may be lone wolves, but the truth is, shifters don’t get along with many people except humans. Who knows what they might do?” She glanced at the door to my bedroom. “I’m doing my best to bring up DJ without those biases, but it’s difficult. Some of them seem inbred, to be honest.”
“Then I’m not sure who to contact. Or if we should even try.”
“You may not be in danger, but I still have the problem of how to protect my little brother. I can’t go home again until I have some answers.” Angel gave me the look she always did when I had totally missed the point.
I let out a sigh. “Right. I’m sorry, I didn’t think.” I was running through a list of people I knew in my head, trying to zero in on somebody who might be useful to us, when the doorbell rang.
Angel and I both froze. I slowly rose out of my chair and motioned for her to join DJ in my bedroom. When she had closed the door behind her, I readied my blade and quietly approached the front door, peeking out through the peephole.
A man stood there. He was tall—at least significantly taller than I was—and with wheat-colored hair that fell below the shoulder blades and the scruff of a beard. He didn’t look Fae, and yet he didn’t look human either. I hesitated, my hand on the doorknob, when he rang the bell again. Slowly opening the door a crack, I peeked out, ready to slam it shut at the first sign of trouble.
“Yes?”
“Ember Kearney?” His gaze met mine, and it felt like he drilled a hole right through me.
“Who wants to know?” I wasn’t used to visitors, and that he was here so quickly after what had happened this afternoon made me wary.
“My name is Herne. You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are, and I know you’re in trouble. And I know you need my help. That’s why I’m here.”
He was wearing biker’s leathers, and carrying a helmet in his hand. I tried to read his energy, and the strength of it blasted me back. Rubbing my head from the sudden pounding, I wasn’t sure what to do. He could be Fae, although I didn’t think he was. And how did he know my name and that we were in trouble?
“You’ll have to do better than that. I need to know who you are and why you’re here.”
“I know you’re protecting friends right now, and that’s a good thing. But you won’t be able to protect them much longer without my help. I took care of the bodies in the woods, but I couldn’t find the third man.”
I hesitated. He obviously knew what had happened, but if I let him in, was he a greater danger? There was no other way out, given I lived on the fifteenth floor. And I’d be the only one standing between him and DJ and Angel. While I was good with my dagger, I wasn’t sure that I could take him on. He looked muscled, and it looked like he had a wicked blade strapped to his belt.
“You can either let me in, or I can leave and let them find you.”
I pressed my head to the door, struggling with the decision.
“You have my help, if you choose it. I give you my word, I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Your word? And what would you swear on?”
Herne held out his hand, then drew his blade. Immediately, I reached for my dagger but he shook his head and slashed his blade across his palm. Blood sprang forth, and he held it out toward me.
“Under the name of Cernunnos and Morgana, I swear to you on my blood that I will not harm you. For they’re the ones who sent me.”
At that, I knew he was telling the truth. He swore on the name of the goddess my mother had been pledged to, and it would be an easy thing for me to call down her vengeance if he broke his oath. Magic was rife in his voice, and he had just infused it into his oath and his blood.
I stepped back, opening the door so he could enter. At that moment, Mr. Rumblebutt ran out into the foyer beside me. He looked up at Herne, then turned around and sauntered off.
He came in, glancing around. “You need to get your friend out here. We all have to talk.”
Angel eased the door open to my bedroom and slipped out. “I was listening.” Her gaze was fastened on his face, and I glanced over at her, looking for confirmation. She was psychic enough to tell if he was lying.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“He’s telling us the truth. There’s more, but I don’t get the sense that he’s here to harm us.” She joined us at the table and we all sat down.
I turned to him. He was a striking man, with brilliant blue eyes, and he felt familiar, though I knew I had never met him before. “All right, we’re listening.”
As he settled into his chair and leaned forward, his elbows on the table, I retrieved a paper towel and handed it to him for his hand. But he opened his fist just in time for me to see the wound close and vanish. He wiped off the blood that was still clinging to his fingers, but the cut itself was gone.
“Are you a vampire?” The only people I knew who healed up so quickly were vampires.
He let out a snort. “Hardly. I’m as alive as you are. You saw the blood. If I was a vampire, I would have bled far more slowly. I told you, my name is Herne. My father is Cernunnos, the Horned One, the Lord of the Forest. He and Morgana sent me. I’ve come to offer you and your friend jobs and safety, of a sort. My father has agreed that you should join the Wild Hunt. Welcome aboard.”
Chapter 4
WHEN NEITHER ANGEL nor I moved, Herne reached across the table for the brandy bottle. He waited a moment, then opened the bottle and was about to upend it into his mouth.