“That wasn’t Aisling.”
I lick my lips. “Who was it?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Bursa lifts his brows, and another scream splits the air as if on cue.
I place my palm on the table, preparing to stand, Percy hops off my leg and scurries under the table.Don’t let him fool you, witch. That was meant to sound like you.
Realization dawns as I rise. He’s using his magic to try to fool the others. He knows they are in the house. “How can you be so sure it’s not Aisling? She might need help.” I stare at Bursa, hoping Percy goes to check on the others.
“She hasn’t made a peep since yesterday. Poor thing exhausted herself over the past few days,” he mocks. I watch, mystified, as a wooden cutting board gets swiped off the counter and crashes into Bursa’s hip. He reacts to the attack by bending to the side to get away from the slab of wood, but the object already hit its mark and falls to the floor, narrowly missing Bursa’s foot.
“You can do better than that.” Bursa pulls himself to his full height and acts as if the cutting board didn’t hurt him at all.
“I didn’t do that.” I back away a step, making sure not to hit the chair behind me.
“One of your friends then?” he asks conversationally.
I shake my head in denial, but my gaze is drawn upward when the simple light fixture above the table starts to swing back and forth by an unseen force. Hexes, even knowing it’s probably the real Eugene still freaks me out.
“It must be the other agent she was seen with today,” Bursa muses to himself. “Nash, I think her name was.” The fact that he knows that is downright creepy. I wonder how he found that out.
“It’s not her. I think you already know who it is.” I’ve put a little more space between us, since I don’t want him lunging and getting his hands on me.
“Don’t tell me the old coot convinced you the place is haunted?” He snorts dismissively.
“I didn’t need convincing. I saw the evidence with my own eyes.” I dart my gaze up to the moving light, then back down again so as not to take my eyes off Bursa for long.
“That man didn’t have the energy to create a ghost.” Apparently, Bursa doesn’t put a lot of faith in other people or their abilities.
A decorative plate flies off the wall and smashes into the side of Bursa’s head. He lifts his arms in an attempt to protect himself, but he isn’t fast enough. The thud is loud, but the shattering of glass when the plate falls to the floor is even louder.
There’s an angry red mark on Bursa’s temple running down to his ear. When he clenches his jaw, I see the area right over his cheekbone beginning to swell with what might end up being a goose egg. The magic coming from him wavers for a moment, as if he briefly lost his concentration.
“I think you offended Eugene,” I mumble. It was more of an observation than it was meant to be a taunt, but I don’t think he sees it that way.
Bursa takes a quick menacing step forward, but a look of complete and utter shock covers his face in the next second when he looks down at something neither of us can see. I expect to see something move or fly across the room, what I don’t expect is to see Nash and Felix materialize right before my eyes.
Nash is breathing hard, and I swear there’s a sheen of tears in her eyes, but the absolute hate filled gaze she’s throwing at Bursa could easily rival my own. With her gaze locked on his, and her hand clinging to the single cuff she managed to get around his wrist, she growls, “Put your hands behind your back, you sick fucker.”
My mouth falls open. While that was completely called for, it was also completely unexpected coming from Nash. Bursa lifts his chin in the air, and I think he might try to fight, but a knife appears, pushed up against his throat hard enough to cut him. We’re not talking a thin little razor slice either. This is from a dull kitchen blade that has torn the skin more than made a smooth cut.
Bursa licks his lips and moves his free hand behind his back, narrowly avoiding Gray, who is holding the knife and all up in Bursa space as if he’s looking for a reason to use the blade.
“Where are Remy and Aisling?” I ask while Nash moves with him to put his already cuffed hand behind his back. A smile forms on Bursa’s lips, even though he’s been completely incapacitated. I don’t like that look.
“You’ll never find them alive.” My heart skips a beat at his words. Felix reaches over and punches Bursa in the side of the head, hitting the same spot the heavy plate did, and the swelling splits open. Bursa blinks slowly a few times, and that’s when I see an apron of blood flowing from his neck.
There’s a sharp clang when Gray throws the knife that was in his fist to the floor and uses both of his hands to hold up Bursa—he would have fallen otherwise.
Nash drops Bursa’s arm and the dangling cuff she never attached, then starts yelling, “We need a healer. We need a healer in here now!” while pulling out her phone. She repeats the same thing through the phone, and I hear someone burst through the front door.
Everything is happening so fast, but it somehow feels like it’s in slow motion too. “We need him alive,” Nash orders. Bubbles start to gurgle out of the gash in Bursa’s throat, and a funny sound comes with it.
“Hecate, did you use a chainsaw?” a somewhat familiar voice remarks, but I can’t focus on anything but the blood coming from Bursa. Every drop lost means there’s less of a chance to find out what he did with Remy. “Lie him down,” the voice instructs. “Give me some room.”
Felix and a pale Gray step backwards, bringing them closer to me.
“Keep him alive, Kline. We need to see what’s in his head.” Bursa’s eyes widen at Nash’s words, as if everything that was already happening was okay, but the thought of someone getting into his head is more than he can handle. More choking noises sound, but they are cut off abruptly when magic fills the room—healing magic.
