Page 48

“I don’t know,” Travis said. He leaned forward over Randy, his eyes roaming over the house and the trashed lawn. Sure, it wasn’t the best of places, but that hadn’t stopped us from going in before.

I eyed Randy, and he sighed. “Well, I’m going in there. That book is the only thing we have to go on to save Liam and I’m not going to let it slip from our grasps because the freaking lights aren’t on.”

He pushed the car door open and jumped out. I was right behind him. Gabe swore and came out after me. “I wasn’t saying we shouldn’t go in. I was just saying we should be prepared if there’s something there.”

Travis’s door slammed, and he ran up to us. “I also wasn’t saying we shouldn’t go in, just remember what happens when we get impulsive.”

“They’re all cracked out in there and high on magic. The only thing you can get in there is—”

A shattering noise obliterated the stillness. We all looked at one another and then ran inside. The door was already unlocked, and Randy immediately ran toward the area we’d met Ren in before. We stopped halfway there. The girl who’d answered the door when Randy and I came the first time was face down in the carpet, her hair a tangled mess around her. Gabe pulled his shirt up and over his nose. “It smells like a freaking fresh cemetery in here.”

Randy bent down and pulled the girl over. Unstaring, grayed-out eyes met our own, sending a shiver through me. “Son of a bitch!”

He stood and moved on. Another body, a shirtless guy, was only a few feet away, staring straight up at the disgusting ceiling.

A gurgling sound pulled us out of the search for more bodies. Gabe ran forward. “We’ve got a live one.”

Randy and I moved forward. Next to a broken lamp, Ren’s body lay on its side. His chest barely moved, and his pale face was almost gray in the dusky room. “Ren?” I called out, taking his hand. It was cold and clammy.

Randy picked him up and set him on the couch. His head lolled to the side. His eyes stared at everything but us. If I hadn’t known better, it looked as if he’d OD’d on drugs. Crazy the amount of comparisons there were to magic and meth.

Gabe slapped Ren’s face a few times, and he finally shook it, his eyes coming into focus. He blinked. “Randy?”

“Yeah,” Randy said, his eyes still catching on the bodies strewn all over the floor. There were probably even more bodies in the bedrooms. This place was literally a whore house, so it wouldn’t surprise me if every one of them was full. Randy must’ve been thinking the same thing because he pulled on Gabe’s arm and looked at Travis. “You guys check the rooms.” He hiked his thumb over his shoulder pointing down the narrow hallway.

I knelt beside Ren, not daring to take his hand again. “What happened in here?”

Ren coughed. “Well, I found that guy you were calling to warn me about.”

I closed my eyes, taking in the information. Dupre had been here. As we’d suspected, he was the one draining all the witches’ bodies.

Ren reached out and pulled on my sleeve. “He wants you.”

I nodded, acknowledging him. We’d already known that.

“Cassie?” he said, his eyes suddenly widening. “Is she dead?”

I looked around the room. So far, he was the only one we’d found alive. “Which one’s Cassie?”

He looked around us, his face suddenly paling even further. He shook his head, his mouth twisting in agony. “She was alive when I first walked in. She told me this guy had shown up and offered them a magical hit.”

“He did the exact opposite,” Randy said, his voice threatening.

Ren nodded. “Drained them. Drained them right down into nothing. They barely had a damn thing to give him.”

I locked gazes with Randy. That was probably why they were dead. They didn’t have enough magical juice to even amount to anything, so he probably kept taking and taking until they died on him. If he wanted powerful witches why the hell would he come here? They bartered sex for magic.

I turned back to Ren. “You walked in on him, didn’t you?”

The corners of his eyes pulled down. “After finding Cassie, I gave her a bit of magic, hoping it would help her, but I just couldn’t stay with her. I could hear others moving around, so I kept going. He was draining Caleb when I got into this room. He’d tried to protect them, but this guy was all over him. When Caleb fell, it was my turn. I did what I could, but he was so strong. We fought for a while.”

That must’ve been one of the other reasons for the smell of sulfur and rotten meat in here. They’d been throwing negative spells at one another. It smelled like roadkill had been burned in the oven.

Randy sat back on his haunches and shook his head. “I think you’re going to be okay, man.” His jaw hardened. “Everyone else, though. It doesn’t look like they made it.”

Travis and Gabe came walking back up the hallway at that moment with solemn faces. They certainly didn’t look like they’d found someone else alive back there. What a senseless waste and use of life. No, these weren’t upright citizens, but they didn’t deserve to die so one insane fucking witch could get a little hit of magic that probably wouldn’t make a difference in the long run. Then again, he hadn’t just taken out the women and men in here who wanted the magic, he’d also taken out the ones who were willing to give up some of their magic for sex. Maybe he’d gotten a bigger dose than I originally imagined.

Gabe came forward and put his hand on my shoulder. He gave a quick shake of his head.