Page 32 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

Neith

“W ell, it’s good that you know that much. It means that we won't waste time researching something that we don’t need to,” Raiden says, and Griff nods in agreement.

“Why are we heading into town? No one answered that question, and we sort of got derailed with other conversations,” Van asks from the front.

“We’re going into town because Neith found a way to fix the problem that I’m having with the wards, but I don’t have the ingredients, so we need to go to the apothecary in town,” Ransom says, going on to explain what he’s figured out.

“Awesome, well done, Neith,” Reed compliments with a smile.

The conversation turns to other things for a few moments before Evander interrupts and changes the conversation entirely.

“I think we should go and tell Sully about Murray sooner rather than later,” he suggests.

“Yeah, I agree. We don’t want him to tell her that we were at the pack grounds or anything like that, and then for her to put two and two together and figure out that we know that she helped Derek,” Griff says.

“No, that wouldn’t be a good thing at all. Plus, he needs to be wary around her to make sure that he remains safe and doesn’t give any unnecessary information away about you. She knows who you really are after all,” River adds in agreement.

“Which, considering what she is apparently willing to do, is not a good thing at all,” Raiden points out. “Although the silencing spell might stop them all from saying who you are to anyone outside of those who already know.”

“That would make sense,” Griff agrees. “I mean, there would have been no way to know whether those who were once loyal to your parents would remain so after such a long time and with such a distance between them.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” Doc nods.

“I think you’re right, we need to talk to him as soon as possible.

Especially since he now knows that your father is here.

If he tells Murray that, then she has a massive bargaining chip in her arsenal.

Even just the knowledge will sell and is extremely dangerous. ”

“Agreed. It would probably be better to go during the day so that we’re less likely to run into anyone that could be reporting back to the Blue Fucker, or hell, even HID, who would then most likely report to the Blue Fucker,” Coen suggests thoughtfully.

I nod, “He’s there all the time, so we can go before it opens and avoid the crowds.

If we get there early enough, we will even avoid the other staff.

I know he said that he had them all extensively questioned under oath, and that he’s dealt with the Blue Fucker before, and most likely knows even more about him than we do, but I feel like in these kinds of instances we need to be really careful. ”

“Yeah, we don’t want to risk you, or Sully’s place either,” Van says. “How about we get what Ransom needs from town, drop in to see Neera, and then go and see Sully before anyone else arrives.”

“Now that it’s been mentioned, my magic is stirring, and I have this urgency to tell him,” Griff states. He pulls a confused face as he adds, “It's going to take some getting used to this change in my visions. I was quite happy with the one or two visions that I got a year.”

“I know, man,” River replies. “It is pretty fucking cool though. When you had the vision about Merrikh, your eyes went completely black. It looked wicked.”

“They did?” he asks.

It’s then that I realize that we haven’t really gotten around to talking about that yet. Not really, not what he looked like or anything like that.

Coen grins as he takes over the explanation, “Yeah, they did. I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t think those who had visions reacted quite like that.”

“That’s because they don’t,” Griff replies. “At least to my knowledge, they don’t. There’s also nothing about it in gargoyle lore that I remember. Although, like I said, I would have to ask my family to be certain.”

“They don’t do phones, do they?” I ask, my eyebrows furrowing slightly as I try to remember the very limited information that he has shared about his family.

He shakes his head with a slight smile, “No, they don’t really do many modern conveniences. They don’t really have anything against them, they just prefer not to.”

“Fair enough,” I reply.

“We’ll figure it out,” Raiden replies as we pull into town, and Van tries to look for a parking spot.

“Thanks, man,” Griff replies. “As I said earlier though, it’s not too high up on the list. There are a lot of other things that we need to look into with more urgency than that.”

“I know, but I wanted to try to find you some answers,” Raiden explains. This is clearly bothering him, since he’s picked up the conversation again.

“How many things are you looking into at the same time, man?” Coen asks, his eyebrow raised as he looks at Raiden knowingly.

Raiden winces slightly and glances away, which makes Coen smile.

“About six or seven,” Raiden replies eventually when everyone just stares at him, waiting for an answer.

“Thought so,” Coen says. “Don’t do too much, you’ll overwhelm yourself and end up in burnout.”

Raiden chuckles, “I don’t know whether to be happy that you remember that I do that, or mad because you remember and I know you’re right, and that means that I’m going to have to slow down and I don’t want to.”

Coen shrugs, “I’m good with either, so long as you slow down.”

“I’ve missed you, dude,” Raiden replies with a grin.

“Come on, let’s go and find whatever it is that Ransom needs,” Evander says as he jumps out of the van, and we all tumble out after him.

“Have you messaged Neera to see if she’s working today?” River asks as he swings an arm around my shoulders.

I shake my head following Ransom as he leads us all toward the Apothecary.

“No, she’s like me, she’s always working,” I reply with a smile.

“I think maybe we should stay out here while you go in,” Doc suggests to Ransom. “There’s rather a lot of us and it’s only a small store.”

“Good point,” Ransom says and then holds a hand out to me, “come on, I know how much you love these places.”

I grin, “Raiden told you. I mean, I was coming in whether you wanted me to or not, but it’s nice to be invited.”

The guys chuckle at my response and start talking about something else as Ransom and I head up the steps, but a prickle on the back of my neck has my instincts stirring. The Voices don’t seem to react in any way, their quiet murmur is the same as it usually is, which tends to be a good sign.

I glance back over my shoulder, and pretending that I’m looking at the guys, I quickly study our surroundings, making sure to keep a relaxed smile on my face.

There are a couple of people who are glancing in our direction, but their gazes don’t linger for very long, and they’re most likely just looking because we’re quite a big group, and I wouldn’t describe any of the guys as unassuming.

None of those gazes is what triggered my instincts though. I didn’t feel it for long enough to know whether whoever was watching me meant any harm, but it triggered my instincts in some way, and I need to remain alert.

Not that I wasn’t anyway, but I need to remain more alert.

Alerter?

For fuck sake, that is definitely not a word.

For the moment, the feeling has dissipated. As I begin to turn back around to follow Ransom inside the store, my gaze catches Coen’s.

He raises his eyebrow at me in question, showing how used to working with me he is, and how well he knows me in general.

I don’t particularly want to say it out loud since I don’t know if anyone is listening.

So I use the hand signals that Dimitri, Coen, and I developed to talk to each other when we couldn’t speak out loud.

Tapping out a series of movements that look pretty random on my leg, Coen tilts his head to the side ever so slightly to show that he’s understood and then seamlessly joins the conversation again, and I move inside the store.

Only a few moments have passed since I first felt the prickle of intuition.

Ransom smiles at me, and I follow him deeper into the shelves of curiosities as it occurs to me that we should probably teach the others the hand signals so that we can tell them things in situations like this.

I frown. Most of the signs we should teach them, there are one or two special ones that are reserved for Coen, Dimitri, and me.

“You could hunt with Dimi again,” a voice that I try to repress constantly, chimes up unexpectedly, and I frown.

One of my favorite things to do is to hunt with Dimitri. It soothes a dark and quite frankly, feral part of me when Dimitri and I go after someone together.

It’s just different than it is with anyone else, even Coen, who is quite frankly just as feral.

I begin to smile at the memories and then roll my eyes.

For fuck sake.

Coen said he thinks that Dimitri is being controlled, that Dimitri told him that he was. Well, Dimitri is a fucking good liar, and there is a very good chance that he told Coen that for some sort of ulterior motive.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t get my hopes up, and here I am wanting to go fucking hunting with him, that’s all kinds of fucking crazy.

Taking a deep breath, I’m instantly grateful that we’re in the apothecary and surrounded by soothing scents, and since I’m here, and clearly dealing with some delulu shit, I’m going to pick up some calming herbs and maybe some for clarity too, that I can burn so I don’t start obsessing or freaking out.

At this point, it will probably be both.

Dimitri has always been my weakness.

That wasn’t such a bad thing once upon a time, but then Dimitri himself started using it against me, and that cut me deeper than anything else, and I’ve been through some shit.

Yep, I’m going to need all the help I can get to deal with this.

Moving back to the door, I grab one of the cute wicker baskets and head straight for the herbs and various other things that I think I’ll need. By the time I’m done, the basket is overflowing.