Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,54
was too tired. As I looked up at him, I found that my apartment was back to its prebattle state with both doors fixed. The dead warlock was gone along with the bloodstain in the carpet. All that was left were a few stray pieces of chalk and my own bloodstained hands.
“Good to know I’ve got at least one skill,” I said, scratching Sofie on the top of the head and behind her ears.
“If you’re fishing for more compliments, I’d stop.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Why don’t you tell me what the fuck is going on? And by that question, I mean for you to start with Indianapolis, cover Sofie’s injuries, and finish with the two fucknuts who popped by to rearrange my apartment.”
“I’ll start with the easiest and the rest should fall into place,” Gideon said on a sigh as he sat heavily on my couch. He looked as exhausted and as rough as I felt, but without the bruised and cracked ribs. “I didn’t get to talk to Sofie, but I did see her briefly in Dresden. I assumed that you sent her in hopes of drawing me back to Low Town.”
I stared down at Sofie in my lap. “You went all the way to the Tower?”
Sofie gave a wide yawn. “You aren’t the only one who wants answers. And it was the only place I was guaranteed to get them.”
I suppressed a shudder at the thought. She had walked into the lion’s den. The European Ivory Tower wasn’t in Dresden, Germany, but more to the north of the city in some forestland called Der Loben near a series of lakes. Everyone referred to it as Dresden because that was the closest big city. And for roughly nine years, the Dresden Tower had been my home.
“As I was saying,” Gideon continued a bit irritably. “When the meeting broke up, I had already lost sight of Sofie, but I gather someone else was following her. They took care of her once they were sure they had your location.”
Sofie rubbed her head against my hand. “Sorry, Gage. I didn’t mean to lead anyone back to you.”
“As long as they didn’t tell anyone else where they had found me, it doesn’t matter. Any idea who they were?”
Resting his right elbow on his knee, Gideon leaned his forehead against his right hand, scratching his scalp in thought. “The warlock on your floor was Neil Wilson. If there was a witch with him, it was most likely his apprentice. I think her name is Leanne, or maybe Lenore. He usually called her Useless Clod. Did you at least finish her?”
I looked away from the warlock, unable to meet his gaze. “Don’t know. Sent her fishing off the North Shore. She might have escaped.” Gideon remained silent so long that I had to look back. He frowned at me and I could feel his disappointment. For the first time, my claim that I wasn’t a killer like him sounded weak and pathetic. An excuse rather than a principle.
“I get that they were here to kill me,” I said, breaking the silence. “But do they have a new reason to be here?”
“For both our sakes, I fucking hope not,” the warlock snapped, surprising me with his choice of language. He flopped back against the couch and dropped one foot on the top of my coffee table.
“You want a drink? My brother’s got some beers,” I said with a smirk.
Gideon hated me most days and the feeling was more than mutual. He was a pompous, arrogant, controlling asshole who liked to make my life hell, but I had to stop there because I also knew that he had done a lot to protect my life. Regardless, he had never looked quite so human as he did slouched on my couch with hair standing on end and shirt wrinkled. If his state didn’t scare the shit out of me, I would have laughed.
“God, that would be nice.” He sighed and shook his head. “No, Ellen will worry.”
“You go home every night?”
“I try, but it’s not always possible. After Indianapolis, I have to.”
Yeah, the whole world was in a state of shock and terror. His wife would definitely need a little reassurance tonight from her warlock husband. While the news reports were offering little information beyond horror, a warlock could provide a better view of why the world was close to burning.
“Speaking of which, what happened with Indianapolis? Is the renewed attack on me tied to it?”