Five for Silver (Black Crow Chronicles Book 5) Read online

  FIVE FOR SILVER

  Black Crow Chronicles Book Five

  Jen Pretty

  There is scarcely any passion without struggle.

  —Albery camus

  CHAPTER ONE

  "Selena, wake up!"

  I rolled over and made some unattractive noise in the direction of the voice calling me. "What?" I croaked.

  "There is another one."

  I recognized the voice as one of my entourage but couldn't remember their name. At this point, we were lucky I could remember my name.

  I flopped out of the tiny cot I had been sleeping on and tipped my head to the side while lifting my arm over my head, stretching out the kinks from sleeping too hard. I hadn't had a full night sleep in a month, and it was getting old.

  I reminded myself that I was doing this for a good reason, then stumbled into the shower.

  Falcor had gone fucking nuts. Like, I'm talking Jack Nicholson in The Shining level of crazy. The DPI and Nick were covering it up, but the news was spreading. Falcor was indiscriminately killing vampires. He was slaughtering whole nests of vampires, whether they were rogues or not.

  I was getting closer, but it was hard to stop someone who could sift away in the blink of an eye. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to smack some sense into him. But my team was determined to catch him.

  I flicked on the shower and let the lukewarm water wake me the hell up, then dried myself and dragged on some clothes, including a loose scarf that I could cover my face with. It would protect me from the frequent sand storms and blazing heat that pummeled the city of Niamey in West Africa.

  The city wasn't on the list of places that we knew Falcor had visited and, therefore, could shift around freely. So, this was our best shot at cornering him.

  His habits were the same. He would kill and then kill again shortly after before dropping off the grid for a few days. I hadn't slept much.

  I stumbled out of the tiny bedroom and into the main room of the hotel suite we rented. There were several big burly vampires and DPI agents, including Zander. I was thankful they were with me since Nick couldn't come on this mission. The vampires were up in arms about the new king of the warlocks and witches and his murderous binge. Rightly so.

  "Here you go, Madam Crow."

  "Selena," I reminded the DPI agent, again.

  He just smiled and set a plate of food in front of me.

  "When do you want to move out?" Zander asked.

  I had my mouth filled with bacon and veggie omelet, so I held up one hand, fingers extended.

  "Five minutes," he called to everyone else. The conversations stopped, and the men and women gathered their things, pulling on weapons that I prayed they wouldn't need. I couldn't stand by and watch Falcor kill any more people, but at the same time, I knew he had to be under some kind of magic. The fake White Crow did something to him, and I hoped I could help him.

  I shoved the last of my toast in my mouth just as Crow appeared above my head. I ducked, and he landed with a skid on the table, nearly knocking my orange juice over.

  I snatched up the glass and chugged it, then grabbed my boots and tugged them on.

  "You ready to go get Falcor?" I asked Crow. The rest of the team was already out the door; just Zander waited for me.

  I rose and put my dishes back on the room service cart, then turned back to look at the bird. Something about the way he was looking down at the empty food cart brought a snort of laughter.

  "Couldn't find any snacks wherever you've been?"

  He cawed at me, and I shook my head at the silly bird. "Come on, I'll grab you some killichi from the kitchen." Killichi was a pretty delicious type of bread, and Crow had been gobbling up every scrap of it he could find since we arrived.

  Crow hopped off the table, taking a few slow flaps with his wings and then zipped past Zander and me and out to join the other team members.

  We travelled down the elevator, and I was reminded how much it seemed like home, apart from the sand storms and the fact that nobody spoke English. We had a linguist on our team, thank God. And she was able to help out in every country we had been to so far.

  After a quick stop at the dining room for Crow's breakfast, we stepped out into the early morning as the sun was just peeking over hit the road. The red sand was everywhere and seemed to get into everything, but I felt hopeful that today I would find Falcor and get him back on the right path.

  The women of the city wore bright-coloured, long skirts, and the men wore shirts and pants in equally bright patterns. It made the city feel like a fashion show, and I happily watched them out the window as our cab, the first in a line of four, travelled through the city toward our destination.

  "He killed a vamp woman less than an hour ago. If he follows his same pattern, he is still in the area looking for a second target," Zander said. He had become our unofficial leader since I wasn't picking up the slack.

  I nodded and turned back to the window. It wasn't that I didn't feel bad about all the vampires he was killing. The vamps and magic users were still in so much turmoil, and I couldn't let it continue. I knew that. I just felt worn out. Emotionally, physically, and mentally. I had been running from one disaster to another since the first day I met Falcor. I wanted a rest. Some quiet time to just be still and settled.

  It was selfish, and I knew it, but that didn't change the way I felt.

  The car pulled to a stop at the curb behind a line of police cars and caution tape. An ambulance was sitting there too, waiting to take away the dead.

  I stepped out and was immediately surrounded by big burly men and women. If I had the energy, I would have complained, but my previous complaints about them hovering like worried mommies around me had fallen on deaf ears.

  Zander led our herd over to the alley, where some officers were standing around with a few detectives in cheap suits.

  "DPI," Zander said, flashing him his badge.

  "Spook squad," an officer said, causing a few chuckles among the idiot humans.

  I ignored it and pushed through my bodyguards and past the officers as one detective filled Zander in on the details. I didn't need the details. I would get them right from the source.

  Her wraith tugged at me, and the fire inside me stirred to life.

  The woman's body was beneath a tarp but based on the amount of her blood in the alley, she’d put up a fight. I wondered if Falcor had been injured this time.

  Crow called out from the sky and then dove down into the alley. Suddenly I was alone with the body and my bird. It was just us three as the voices behind me faded into the distance.

  We were alone, the three of us, as the wraith rose from the carnage to hover just over the largest part of the mess that used to be her body. Most vampires didn't stick around after death. They were technically already dead, so they would just disappear.

  I pulled the knife from my hip and brought it towards my arm. A voice yelled from behind me, breaking the silence that had fallen on us. Then another voice rose, and I was distracted enough to turn and look. The police officers and my team were in a scuffle. I assumed the police hadn't been well enough informed about what I would and could do, but before I could turn back, one of the officers pulled out his weapon, aimed and fired.

  I was falling. The world was black, but I could feel myself falling down, down, down.

  I fell for so long, I thought I would never reach the bottom, and a quiet peace settled over me. The darkness cradled me to its chest, and silence closed over me as I accepted the eternity I had found.

  CHAPTER TWO

  "Selena, wake up!"

  "Fuck," I muttered. My head was pounding as if an
entire marching band was rolling around in there. "Shut up." My voice came out like a moan and scratchy as if I hadn't spoken in days.

  I managed to split one eye open, and a fuzzy form was hovering over me.

  "Oh, thank God. The vampire king would have killed me slowly."

  "Zander?" I asked, trying to bring my arm up to wipe my face, but my arm was stuck. No, not stuck. It was strapped down. "What the fuck?"

  "Sorry about that," he said, and I felt fingers loosening straps and freeing my arm. "You got a bit combative in your sleep."

  "What?" I rubbed my eyes and managed to clear up my vision, watching as Zander unstrapped me from the bed. It was a hospital bed, but I wasn't in a hospital. "Where are we? What happened?"

  "You don't remember?"

  I thought back. There was darkness and falling. Before that, I remembered blood and a body.

  "I don't know," I replied.

  "You were going to raise a wraith, but the idiot cop shot you."

  "Fuck."

  "Yeah, that's what we all said, particularly when you didn't wake up.”

  I reached up and realized there was a bandage on my head. "He shot me in the head? Didn't it heal?"

  "Yes, to both," Zander said with a grin. "But there was already enough talk about you being a witch, we didn't want to fan the flames with nurses seeing how fast you healed. We hired a couple to take care of you."

  "How long have I been here?"

  Zander swallowed hard and looked away. "Three days."

  "Holy shit." Well, that solved one mystery. I was not indestructible, but I was immortal.

  "Could you get me a gallon of water?" My mouth was parched and pasty.

  Zander poured a cup and then put a straw in it and held it to my mouth.

  The cold liquid slid over my tongue and down my throat. I swallowed almost painfully, but the feeling was so good I kept drinking until the glass was empty. My mind tried to put the pieces together. The vampire wraith, the yelling behind me. Then falling.

  When Zander took the empty glass away, I cleared my throat and asked the question I was dreading. "Did he kill again?"

  Zander nodded.

  "Now, he's gone?"

  "We aren't sure if he left the city, but there have been no sightings and no murders. At least none we are aware of. If he has moved to Alaska, we may not hear about any murders for a while."

  My forehead throbbed, and I tossed my arm across it, hoping that I could block it all out for a minute. I felt disconnected, but I couldn't decide from what. It was an unnerving feeling.

  I pushed the blankets back and was glad to see I was in pyjamas, though I didn't want to know who changed my clothes while I was unconscious. That was simply not worth considering.

  "What are you doing?" Zander asked.

  "I'm going to the bathroom, is that okay?"

  "Let me get a nurse to help you," he turned to leave the small bedroom, but I stopped him.

  "You can help me, Zander. I'm not that heavy."

  He turned back, but his eyes were still wide with something. Fear? No. He was definitely nervous, though.

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed as I sat up and immediately got a head rush that made me almost fall off the bed, but in a split second, Zander was in front of me. His strong arms caught me and steadied me where I was.

  "You are so impatient," he scolded.

  I couldn't help but laugh. Zander and I had known each other for a while now, and I felt comfortable with him, but we weren't exactly friends, despite the closeness I felt as he steadied me. When I first met him, he was skinny and kind of weak, but he had been working out, and it was showing. He wasn't huge, but he was big enough to get noticed.

  I pushed off the mattress and onto my feet. My knees buckled, but once again, Zander had me. His arm was around my back, gripping my waist while his other hand held mine, guiding me to the bathroom.

  Each step felt shaky and wrong, but I pushed forward. I was awake, I would go pee in a damn toilet like a grown-ass woman. It didn't bear thinking about anything that had happened while I was out for three damn days.

  I was one step away from the bathroom when the bedroom door slammed open, and I was suddenly engulfed in steel arms. They whisked me off my feet and clung to me so tightly I wasn't sure if I was still awake or had passed out again.

  Then the scent of Nick’s cologne hit my nostrils, and every muscle in my body relaxed.

  "Thank God," he whispered over and over. I wasn't sure it was a God that had kept me from dying. But it wasn't the time to question my faith in God.

  "I'll just let you two..." Zander trailed off then disappeared out the door as Nick settled down on the side of the bed and pulled me into his lap like a child.

  "I got here as fast as I could. They told me you were still unconscious."

  "I just woke up."

  "You got shot in the head."

  "That what they told me," I replied, settling into Nick’s arms.

  He pulled me back enough to look at my forehead. "Colvin has been going nuts." His thumb ran over the center of my forehead.

  "I should call him."

  "He's been trying to reach you mentally. He said you vanished."

  "I was dead, I think."

  Nick's arms crushed me to his chest and I was reminded of my full bladder. The bathroom was so far away again. I had almost made it.

  "I have to go to the bathroom," I complained.

  He chuckled, then rose with me and carried me to the bathroom, setting me on my feet right in front of the toilet.

  "Do you need help?"

  "Oh, God, no," I replied.

  He chuckled, then stepped out and shut the door.

  I handled business and then managed to shuffle to the sink and wash my hands. I glanced up at my face and stopped dead.

  The blue feather that used to glow on my forehead was shattered like glass with a black spot right in the middle and spider web cracks splintering off in every direction.

  "That can't be good," I whispered.

  "You okay?" Nick asked from just outside the door.

  "Yup!" I said, washing my hands and then drying them on a paper towel before opening the door.

  Nick thankfully scooped me up and carried me back to the bed, settling me in the middle before climbing in beside me and wrapping his arms around me. It was more closeness than I’d had in a while. With travelling around looking for Falcor, I hadn’t even had Colvin cuddling up beside me to watch a movie. I missed him.

  "I should call Colvin and let him know I'm okay." Just then, the phone in the room rang.

  "You might not have to," he said with a snicker, picking up the phone.

  Immediately I heard Colvin's voice screaming from the other end, and panic raced through me. I bolted upright, giving myself a head rush that nearly knocked me back down again.

  "Calm down, you're scaring Selena," Nick said before moving the phone to my ear.

  "I'm so sorry! Oh no, tell her it’s okay!"

  "It's me, buddy," I said.

  "Oh, thank God! I'm so sorry. I was just so scared, and then you were back, and I had to convince Mr. Havisham to let me use his phone to call you and then I had to get your number--"

  "Calm down," I said with a chuckle. "I'm sorry I scared you. I’m okay, though."

  Colvin took some deep breaths, and I could picture him closing his eyes and trying to relax. He could get himself so wound up sometimes.

  "Okay, I'm better now. I'm glad you are alright. You are alright, right?"

  "Yup. I just need a bit of time to recover, and then I'll be back on the road."

  There was a long pause. "So, you aren't coming home?" His voice was so low I almost didn't hear him.

  I sighed. "Not yet. I have to find Falcor and get him back to us. He's hurt, and I think the White Crow did something to him. I can help him, so I have to."

  "I understand," Colvin mumbled, but I could tell that wasn't at all what he wanted to say. He was different since we lo
st our little sister to Nevermore. She was ruling there now, and we hadn't had any monsters invading earth since, but Colvin could get moody. And sometimes I worried that mood was more than just a bit of sadness.

  "I promise to work really hard and get Falcor as soon as I can so we can come home. Cross your fingers for me and study hard. I hope you're doing all your work."

  "Of course, I am," he replied. Colvin was top of his class in every subject. But that didn't mean he could slack off.

  "Okay, I better go. I need to rest so I can finish healing. I'll call you tonight, okay?"

  "It is night," he complained.

  I laughed. "Tomorrow morning, your time."

  "Alright. I love you."

  "Love you too. Be good."

  I handed the phone to Nick, and he hung it up before sliding out of bed. "I'll check back later today. I can stay for a few more days."

  "How are things with the vampires?" I asked before he could leave.

  He turned back and sighed, leaning against the door. "I'm handling it."

  "That's not what I asked."

  "It's been hard. Some are calling for me to abdicate because I haven't dealt with the threat to our people harshly and swiftly."

  "Jesus. I'm sorry. I was close this time, and everything went to shit."

  Nick crossed back to the bed and cupped my cheek, ruining his thumb across my cheekbone. "This is not your fault."

  He said it so seriously I almost burst into tears. Instead, I bit my lip. It was kind of my fault. I should have done something more to help Falcor. I knew something was wrong, and I didn't do anything.

  "I know," I said, though I didn't. It was what he wanted to hear, and that was the least I could give him after he travelled for two days straight to be at my side. "I'll find him."

  "I know you will," Nick said. Then he turned and left me alone.

  I let the tears slip silently down my cheeks as I tucked myself under the blankets and closed my eyes. I just had to find Falcor, and then I could go back and deal with all the other messes left behind. Including the disaster that was Jax.

  CHAPTER THREE