Page 72 of Filthy Fae

We stood in a basement storage room between piles of boxes. I’d followed her scent to a metal tissue box in the dressing room, finding it smeared with her blood. From there, her scent trail led underground to a storage room filled with boxes where it simply vanished.

Mack mussed a hand through his hair, his bright eyes darting around the space frantically as if he’d find Scarlet hiding behind a box. “She was crying, and I saw Darrel head in after her, so I gave them a minute. But that’s all I gave them—sixty seconds.”

“She was crying?” Lance growled.

Mack fisted his hand. “Yes. I don’t know why. I was trying to give her what she wanted, but I’m afraid I fucked it all up.”

Lance’s eyes glowed gold, and his fingers twisted into long claws. Otherwise, he looked perfectly calm. “Darrel’s not here. He’s at the Mage Union. I just got a call from him, and he’s heading here with news.”

“The incubus took her,” I said. The words burned my throat. I didn’t want them to be true, but there was no other explanation.

Horror registered on the other two men’s faces.

“What happened to the necromancer?” Without waiting for an answer, I headed for the door. Finding a dead end to Scarlet’s scent had short-circuited my brain, but as of now, I knew what I had to do.

Rushing through the building to the edge of the stage, I inhaled deeply. My heart beat in my ears as I crouched and sniffed the floor. The club had too many odors to discern one from the other, but Scarlet’s distinctive scent was thick here. My heart skipped when I caught another scent that was faintly familiar. Nancy smelled like beer, pipe smoke, and faintly of cookies.

Then the mingled scent of Mack and Lance overwhelmed my senses. Without looking back, I waved and told them, “Twenty feet. Back off that way and track me.”

They retreated, and I again found the faint scent trail. Pushing the velvet curtain aside, I crawled into the wings of the stage and tracked Nancy’s scent into the darkness. The necromancer had headed back into a tangle of wires, and their live electricity sizzled off my skin as I climbed over them.

I would not panic.

I would not fucking panic.

This necromancer was an expert on demons. She would know how it vanished. Climbing over the clot of wires, I tracked her scent to a wall. When I traced my hands over it, I found cold, buffed-metal that chafed against my fingers.

“Is somebody out there?” The voice was faint, coming from the other side of the metal wall.

“Damn it, can I get some light back here?” I called over my shoulder. I couldn’t see a damn thing. It was so dark that I wondered if my eyes were closed.

“Here.” Both Lance and Mack rushed up to me with their phones, casting an eerie blue glow on the door. It wasn’t so much a door as a wall panel with a small lip.

Curling my hands under the edge, I pulled the door open. For just one moment, no more than an instant, I let myself hope that it was Scarlet in there, that she had gone with the necromancer and hidden back here. Then we shone our lights in.

Nancy shaded her eyes with a hand. “He knew we were coming,” she called, her voice a hoarse croak. “He knew.”

The tangy scent of blood filled the air, and I glanced down to see a long metal spike impaling the necromancer’s hand, pinning her to the floor. Blood welled around the wound, soaking into her jeans leg as she knelt on a tangle of cables. Sweat soaked her clothing. The room was no more than a cramped electrical closet. Wires of every color snaked around her, pressing into her sides. We needed to get her out of there.

I crouched, wrapping my hands around the end of the spike. “The demon took Scarlet. Their scent trail vanished in the basement.”

Nancy lifted her head. A darkening bruise ringed one eye, and a split in her lip seeped blood. Sweat dripped down her face and hair, raining onto the wires around us. “Who did you tell?”

“No one.” I gripped the stake, trying to get a firm hold, but the metal spike had embedded into the floor.

“Liar. You told someone.” Her eyes burned into mine, daring me to contradict her words. “The incubus looked a lot like you, only with a beard.”

“Darrel. My brother. We told my brothers.”

“I also told the four fae princes,” Mack said from the doorway. “The leak might’ve been from one of them. They were going to help us stall the hunt.”

“Or they’re the ones who conjured the demon in the first place,” Nancy practically shouted, breathing hard. “I should’ve never involved fucking civilians.”

Mack crouched beside me. “Let me do that, Aaron. Unless it’s iron.”

“This lovely stake here would be ancient bronze melded with stone, forged in hell,” Nancy said through rasping breaths. “You’re not getting it out. I need my knife. It should be out there. I’m going to have to cut through the side of my palm .”

The very idea made me want to throw up, but Nancy gritted her teeth like she was ready for the knife. I crawled out of the way, to the edge of the utility closet, but Mack moved in to take my place.