Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,112

The dispatcher listened to the report, then asked where Lucy was headed.

“I’m trying to find the source of the shades,” Lucy said, glancing at the GPS. “Currently heading west.”

“Understood,” the dispatcher said briskly. “All other Guardians in the area are engaged containing an active ghoul mass rising east of Bakersfield, but we’ll request the army set up a containment area and dispatch operatives as soon as we’re able. Keep us posted on your location and status.”

Lucy signed off and tossed the radio in the console.

“Mass ghoul rising?” Malcolm asked.

“Yeah. That happens sometimes after major magic flares. It’s not pretty, but it’s not as bad as what we saw in Walliston.” She cursed. “I’m going to have a hell of a time explaining all this. They’ll find the mausoleum you destroyed, and someone will sense your magic traces.” She glanced at me. “Okay, out with it.”

“Out with what?”

“When we find that door, what is your plan? And don’t say to close it, because I know there’s more to it.” She slowed on a curve, her eyes on the road. “Ronan’s not the only one who can smell a half-truth. Let’s hear it.”

As far as I could tell, I didn’t have much of a choice, because I might need her to cover for me while I was down below.

I drank the last of the water in my Hawthorne’s bottle. “I’m going through the door to find a mage named Mariela Diakos and the item she stole from my client. And if we’re right and the gravelings and shades came from the Underworld through a door she left open, I am going to bring her back to face justice for the deaths she’s caused.”

“Did you push Alice to tell you all that?” Malcolm demanded, flitting in anger.

“No, I didn’t,” Lucy told him. She glanced at me again. “You know I can’t let you go through that door.”

“Before you decide to get in my way and we have to sort that out, let me tell you the rest of why Malcolm, Daisy, and I are here,” I said.

I laid it out as succinctly as I could: Mariela’s lost family, the theft of the scroll, why she’d gone to the Underworld, and who she intended to bring back. And then I told her we couldn’t get home without the scroll.

Lucy said nothing for a long time.

“This person you were hired to find…she wants to bring back the actual Furies,” she said finally.

“Yup.”

“Shit.”

“Yup.”

Suddenly, Daisy veered off the road and disappeared into the trees. Lucy braked hard. “Where the hell did she go?”

“I don’t know,” I said. Ahead, a narrow dirt road turned to the right. “Try that,” I suggested. “She’s been staying on the road so far. We’ll find her.”

As the sun disappeared behind the hills to the west, Lucy turned onto the dirt road. Ronan followed us.

I leaned forward to get a better look at the GPS. “This area is shaded gray. What does that mean?”

“Sacred land.” She touched the screen and read the text that appeared. “An ancient burial site belonging to the Chumash people.”

I rubbed my prickly arms. “Right on top of a ley line.”

“That tracks,” Malcolm said. “An ancient burial site on a ley line—there’s no better place to try and open a portal to the Underworld.”

“But where the hell is Daisy?” I asked.

“Shit!” Lucy slammed on the brakes. The jeep slid to a stop in the middle of the road. I checked my side mirror to make sure Ronan was all right, but the road was empty except for our jeep. Like Daisy, the bike and its rider had disappeared.

Ahead, just before the road ended at the edge of a clearing, a huge man with dark hair and the physique of a Vampire Court enforcer blocked the road. He wore black tactical gear, but no firearms I could see. His eyes were completely black. I’d thought Ronan’s poker face was good, but this man had no expression whatsoever. His face was like the side of a cliff.

“Where the hell did this guy come from?” I asked.

Lucy put the jeep in park. Her expression was nearly as cold as his. “Spartoi,” she warned. “He can read our lips.”

In other words, don’t say anything about our companions. I had no doubt Daisy would come to our defense, but Ronan was a question mark. Safest to assume we couldn’t count on him.

“What does he want?” I asked.

Lucy’s gaze stayed fixed on the Spartoi. “Lots of possibilities. None of them are good.” Her hand rested