“P.J.!” The female banshee shrieked.
I tilted my head to the side a little, confused as to why she’d yell such a thing. It was soon clear that ‘P.J.’ was the name of the ogre from earlier when he came rushing in to see what the trouble was.
“What’s up, Jilda?”
P.J. looked over to me. I smiled prettily and gave a little shrug.
“Hi P.J.!”
“Um, ma’am,” Ma’am? Really? “I need you to get in the car so we can take you to the boss. Uh, please.”
Good ol’ P.J., so polite when he wasn’t breaking my skull. “Well, since you said ‘please’,” I watched P.J.’s lips turn up in a smile. “Yeah, um, I’m gonna give ya a big fat no on that one.”
He ran a hand over his bald head in confusion. “But you have no choice. You can’t fight without your hands.”
“You know, Peeg, I have to say I disagree with you.”
He grunted when I kicked him in the gut.
“I still have my legs.” I spun to gain momentum before landing a kick to his head. The blow threw him into the wall, but otherwise it didn’t do much to faze him.
P.J. and Jilda stalked their way toward me. There was nothing I could do but fight the best I could with just my legs. If I was going down, I was going down fighting.
“Dammit, Kadi! Why do you have to ruin everything?” Sheryl said, and to my utter shock she stabbed P.J., killing him within a foot of me. I watched as his body began to crumble and had the happy thought I didn’t have to clean up after this. Banshee dust is a bitch.
“What the hell? I will kill you!” Jilda screeched at Sheryl.
“No, I do not think you will,” said another familiar voice.
I turned to face the speaker. “Ian?” How did he know where we are?
He stood in the doorway, his focus on Jilda and the knives she’d pulled from her boots. In shock, I barely felt the tug on my arms as Sheryl uncuffed me. As soon as they were off, I felt my aura expand. My wounds healed, and my energy returned. I was free to move, yet I could do nothing but stand there watching Ian and Jilda move in a slow circle, neither one of them taking their eyes off the other.
Jilda lunged for Ian. I sucked in a breath, holding it even as Ian avoided her by crouching low and spinning on one foot as he swiped her feet from under her. Jilda bounced back and went at Ian again.
As Jilda ran at him, Ian fell to the ground and rolled away from her. She turned to keep him in sight. This had her facing away from me giving me an idea.
I grabbed the knife from Sheryl’s belt, snuck up behind Jilda and stabbed her through her heart. As her body turned to dust, I threw the knife back to Sheryl.
“Thanks, now tell me what the hell is happening. Why were you with Jilda and the ogre? And how did you know where we were?” I directed this last question toward Ian.
“We need to find Gabriel’s home base,” Sheryl said, offering no further explanation.
“Explain more. Now.”
“Gabriel has suspicions about your bloodline.” Ian responded this time, referring to my half-mortal, half-fairy lineage, which only the members of my clan were supposed to know.
“How is that possible? And that doesn’t explain blondie being with Jilda or you knowing where we were.”
“Stop calling me ‘blondie’. As Ian said, Gabriel only has suspicions. We figured if we let them take you to him, we could follow, find out where he is, and take him out. Only problem is, Jilda is… was the only one who knew where their HQ is. So, they used this place to hold you until Jilda could come get you. And you screwed up our plan.”
“Maybe if you had told me the plan, I could have gone along with it.”
“I instructed her not to tell you.”
“Ah, I see.”
“You are angry.”
“No, Ian, I’m not angry.” I smiled as I made my way to stand in front of him and punch him in the gut. “Angry doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel.”
Once he recovered his breath, he closed the distance between us again.
“I deserved that one… only that one. Understood?”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that. Where are my knives?”
Sheryl moved to her Ducati and took my knife belt out of the rear compartment. She tossed it to me. I caught it and examined my knives for any damage. I had lost a couple of my throwing knives, but my karambit was in its place. Most importantly, the puukko-style knives my uncle had given me were still there. They were not only my main weapon of choice — better suited for stabbing banshee hearts than the karambit — but they were the most beautiful with carvings of phoenixes on the handles. Other than needing a good cleaning, they were fine.
After ending the phone call, Ian turned back to us. “Sheryl, head back to HQ. “The sweepers will be here soon. I will take one of their vehicles when I am done here.”
The sweepers would get rid of any evidence of us ever being here and check for any mortal captives Gabriel’s gang may be holding here.
“Kadi, you want to ride back with me?”
“No, thanks. I’ll hang back with Ian.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, okay.”
I turned back to Ian to see him smirking.
“What?”
“Seems you may be making a friend.”
“Not likely. Why was she working with Gabriel? She isn’t a Scout.”
“It is not what you are thinking. She is not a traitor. I asked her to infiltrate the gang to obtain information for us. The more moles we have, the more likely we are to get the information we need. Though, after tonight, it will be impossible for her to continue”
“And you were okay with risking her life that way?”
“Greater good,” he responded with a shrug.
“Ah, yes, the ‘greater good’. I assume that’s your excuse for deceiving me?”
He grunted in response.
The sweeper crew arrived then, preventing any further conversation. Ian spoke to one of the crew for a moment before moving to one of the SUV’s. He motioned for me to get in on the passenger’s side. We drove in silence for a while until I could no longer stay quiet.
“I do not appreciate you sending me into a trap without my knowledge. Do it again and I will kill you.” Or try, at least.
“That seems a tad extreme,” he said in a rare moment of sarcasm from Ian.
“Not to me. My life was in danger without my knowledge. That is a tad extreme to me! You had no right.”
“You signed up for this, Goldie. You knew—”
“You do not get to call me that right now, and yes, I know I signed up to be a Hunter. I did not sign up to be an unwitting pawn. I am always willing if I am in on it. What you did was wrong, Ian.”
“I disagree.”
“You are infuriating. You say banshees don’t have the same emotions as mortals — or half-mortals — but you must have the ability to understand them… even a little. I trust you with my life and you repay me by lying to me? That was too far, can’t you see that?”
“Okay, yes, I believe I can. However, I will not apologize for my decision.”
“You can be such a bastard. If I’d known the plan, I could have played along with it.”