Page 36

Havoc

T hree days.

Three fucking days chasing only ghosts and rumors.

Three days where I hadn’t gone home, hadn’t spent time with Isabetta.

Three days where I hadn’t had time to eat a proper meal or sleep for more than an hour or two.

If these Alp fuckers thought they were going to get a single day of peace after they had attacked us, they had another thing coming. I was going to give them enough fuel for their nightmares to last decades.

The asshole that my men had caught had been helpful, thank the fucking gods.

He had given me a starting point for my search.

What quickly became apparent, though, was that the Alps’ powers altered either their perception or their memories.

Or maybe they were all fucking insane. The memories I went through were full of things that weren’t in the places I actually visited.

People’s appearances were never quite right, and there was always something slightly off about them.

There was enough for me to piece together a path, although it took me all around the fucking city.

Either these guys had no true organization, or they intentionally kept things compartmentalized.

I wasn’t sure which one it was. What seemed like chaos could be genius or insanity, but either way, it was a pain in my fucking ass.

My men were still out tracking down their own leads, and I talked to them regularly. I resisted the urge to check in at home. Milo knew I was alive, and as long as he kept prying into what I was doing, I knew everything was fine at home. It was a good reason not to shut him out completely.

I had gone beyond losing my patience late the day before.

Now I was on a fucking rampage. My strikes had been surgical at first, to get the information I needed and move on.

I had set out looking for the head of the snake as once it was cut off, the rest would either die or get the fuck out of town, either was a victory in my book.

But then the snake turned into a hydra, and my mission was now to burn out every trace.

The last Alp I had found was my most promising lead.

There had been a house in her mind, one she had visited many times recently, one that glowed bright in her short-term memory.

Not that it was a place worth remembering, as it was rundown, much like the industrial estate it wasn’t far from.

This entire area was full of petty thieves and small-time drug dealers.

Not the sort of people we usually bothered ourselves with.

A sense of decay clung to the building, like one of those haunted houses you saw in a horror movie.

A place where you knew the floorboards creaked, and the wallpaper was peeling, the whole place smelled like death.

Either these guys had been really lucky with the attacks they had made, or they were far too dedicated to the whole nightmare persona.

Either way, it was going to end right fucking here.

I had been preserving as much of my magical energy as I could, and now was the time to use it.

My wings snapped out of my shoulders, flaring behind me as my eyes glowed.

I wasn’t focused on using my abilities over memory anymore, now was the time to call on the gifts that came with being a messenger of Odin.

With my gun in hand, I moved toward the house.

I wasn’t worried about anyone calling the cops.

Not only was this not that sort of area, but now I was moving so fast, all they would have seen was a blur.

I let my wings carry most of my weight. I wasn’t quite flying, but between them and the speed, it kept me from lingering in any place for too long. It let me move across the decaying porch without losing my footing, and the boards didn’t creak, letting me maintain the element of surprise.

When I reached the door, I had to decide how to proceed.

Focusing on the wood, I stepped briefly into the Spectral Realm—the realm of ghosts.

It was a big fucking mistake. The place didn’t just look haunted; it was haunted.

I didn’t linger, stepping through the door as if it was open, and continuing to move quickly when I crossed back over, seeking out my prey.

The first few rooms were a disappointment.

In a split second, I launched myself up the stairs.

It was that or the basement, and I didn’t want to go down there.

I wanted out of this place as fast as possible.

The first room was a bust, a dingy bathroom that was going to give me nightmares.

The next door was locked. Fucking finally.

Nothing in a place like this was locked unless it was important.

I took a breath before I shifted across the realms, my energy already waning.

I didn’t want to get caught dealing with ghosts as that would take fucking hours, and there was every chance I would get stuck.

Milo would never let me live it down if I had to call him to help me get back.

Not to mention that if these assholes could see into the Spectral, they would be long gone by the time I got out, then who knows when I would find them again?

When I came back to this plane, I was standing in an office.

Moldering books were on the shelves, along with items that didn’t bear thinking about.

There were maps of the city on the wall, pins marking places I would investigate later.

Right now, I needed to deal with the man sitting behind the desk, staring at me like I was running late for an interview.

“Which one of Wodin’s pets are you then? And where is he? Couldn’t be bothered coming himself?” The accent was faint, but definitely Germanic. As was the name for Odin, that I hadn’t heard since I was a child, before we had gone to live with Renzo and his family.

I stepped toward the desk, my wings spread wide, the tips brushing the shelves.

It wasn’t hard to fill the space, and I made sure I did.

The only thing this old man would see before he died was me.

There was no exit or possibility of rescue.

No last look at the plan, or at the books.

The only thing I wanted him carrying with him to whatever hell he believed in was the memory of my face.

“I’m no one’s fucking pet. And since you clearly know who I am, then you know why I’m here.

You’ve come into our fucking town, thinking you can what …

Take over? Cause chaos? It’s time to reap what you fucking sowed, old man.

” My gun was pointed at him as I stepped up to the desk.

I didn’t shoot him yet though, as tempting as it was to put a bullet in his shoulder.

I needed to know more first, and he was going to tell me everything, even if I had to tear it out of his mind with my bare fingers.

“You left your territory wide open and all for what, a pretty face? Did you think you were safe here, feathery pet? Nothing is safe. Not your territory, not your dreams, not even that pretty face you risked it all for.” His smirk was pure fucking evil, and temptation got the better of me and I squeezed the trigger.

The round landed in his shoulder. It was point-blank, so I knew there was no danger of me missing.

The man didn’t even fucking flinch. In fact, he laughed.

It wasn’t the first time I’d had to deal with a crazy asshole, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last. There was no point in wasting fucking bullets, so I holstered the gun and stepped around the desk, my knife in hand.

I let the tip of the blade drag against the wood of the desk as I stepped closer, moving slowly, menacingly, until I was so close to him, he had to crane his head back to keep staring me in the eyes.

“I am going to assume, old man, that before you attacked us, you did your research, since you seem to know who and what I am. So you know I have a reputation, but let’s assume your knowledge runs deeper than that.

” My knife scratched against the desk as I spoke, agonizingly slow but inevitably moving toward his body.

He didn’t confirm or deny what I had said, but I carried on anyway.

“What made you think that threatening the woman I care about was going to go well for you? Did you think we’d trade her for you to leave us alone?

” The tip of the knife left the desk and pressed into his cheek, just below his eye.

The skin turned pink, then white under the pressure, before a bead of blood appeared, welling around the tip of the blade and sliding down the metal.

Again, he laughed. The sound sawed through the very last of my patience, and I had to claw on to my temper to keep it in check.

I needed information. And while spraying his blood all over the walls may have been satisfying, without the information, it would be a waste of my time.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I ignored it.

Whoever it was could wait five minutes until I was done.

I needed to finish here quickly. So I bit my tongue and waited, letting him have his maniacal moment before he finally calmed down enough to speak.

“I am not here to make a bargain with a pet. Nor am I here to threaten or trade. I am here so that you are here, little birdie. I am here, so you are not with your brother. So you don’t have his powers.

So you are not with the pretty little angel with no wings.

It’s a shame. I was looking forward to hearing her scream when we tried to pull them off.

Do you know what she sounds like when she screams? I bet it’s beautiful.”

My eyes narrowed as my phone vibrated in my pocket again.

Very few people would ring me more than once, knowing all it would do was annoy me. His words cut deep; far deeper than my knife. More painful than the bullet hole in his shoulder.

I needed to know if he was messing with me. I reached out mentally for Milo first, frowning when he didn’t answer. He might have been asleep. I wasn’t sure what time it was anymore and there were no windows in this fucking room. Had it been night when I had come here?

My phone vibrated again, and I snarled with annoyance.

My knife didn’t move from the man’s skin, instead it dug in deeper as I wrenched my phone from my pocket with my other hand, stabbing the green button without looking at who was calling.

“What the fuck do you want ?!” My voice was more growl than words, but the tone was clear.

“I was on the phone with Milo and the line went dead. Now I can’t reach him or the driver.

I am on my way to the boutique and I don’t care where you are.

Meet me there. You’re the only one who can find him.

” Renzo’s voice was curt, but as panicked as I had ever heard him.

The man in front of me grinned, a look of triumph in his eyes as the line went dead.

“I told you, little birdie. I am just a distraction. And you are the one who will be too late to save them.”

I didn’t let him continue to taunt me, plunging the knife into his neck to the hilt without pause, though I didn’t take any satisfaction from the moment.

I wrenched it free and tucked it back into its sheath.

With a couple of steps across the room, I had pulled down the map; the pins scattering like candy out of a pinata.

Oh well, we would just have to track them from the holes left behind.

I pushed my way out of the room, no longer worried about making noise or alerting anyone to my presence. If anyone tried to stop me, they were going to be just another body left in my wake. Someone had my fucking brother and Isabetta.

As I stepped out into the afternoon air, the sun was bright and seared my eyes.

I cursed as my wings snapped open. I needed to find Milo, but I also needed to meet Renzo.

More curses spilled for my lips as I ignored the car I had driven here, instead taking off into the air with powerful surges from my wings.

This was a fucking disaster.