Silvertongue - Home Page

Out of everything we’d been through, all of the struggles and the fighting and the getting shot, you’d have thought I might have gotten a little used to stressful situations.

But never in my life had I been so completely fixated on one man having a phone conversation.

For his part, Aedan ignored me. He was turned towards the window, pointedly not looking at the faces I was making at him. He had his phone pressed to his ear. The sound of electronic ringing was just on the edge of my hearing.

“Hey,” he said, shoving a hand up between us and turning further away. “Is this Justin?”

I scowled, trying to twist to peer past his hand, but he just clenched his hand into a fist, pointing a finger my way. I stopped.

Whatever the person on the other end was saying, I couldn’t make out even a whisper. My irritation grew. I was used to smartphones, which tended to just belch sound out for anyone in the vicinity to hear. Not being able to eavesdrop was a sudden, pointed drawback.

“Yeah. Cool. My name’s, uh. Greg.”

I snorted. Aedan elbowed me. Hard. “So, my friend and I are in the area, and I needed some information,” Aedan said, leaning back in his seat. A hint of a smile tugged at his lips.

I sighed, settling back for the wait. The fact he’d had to call me a friend was satisfaction enough.

“Yeah. Yeah. Standard rates?” Aedan paused, furrowing his brow. Dimly, I could hear someone’s voice. The words were still too low to pick out, but their tone was pointely disinterested. Aedan’s smile was gone, vanishing somewhere in the blink of an eye. “No, I’m not going to- no. Come on.”

He was starting to whine - and his smile had faded into a full-blown grimace. I eyed him sidelong, dropping my arm back down to the center console. Sure, the other demi might have been on the other end of a phone line, but it made me feel better to know my best weapon was still close enough to grab.

“No, I want to do it in person. I’m not wiring you money,” Aedan snapped. “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not standard anything.”

Ah. I nodded, understanding Aedan’s trepidation instantly. It’d only be natural for the finder to want to handle the whole transaction from across the safety of a phone line, collecting his fee and passing off whatever tidbits we wanted without ever having to talk face-to-face. But without talking face-to-face, the whole reason for bringing me along vanished into thin air.

“No, I want to see you,” Aedan said, irritation filling every syllable. “How am I supposed to trust you if I can’t even look at you? That’s crazy talk.”

I stared up the asphalt lot, eyeing the gas station’s lonely building. The city around us was bigger than I’d like, and I had no doubt that we were far closer to civilization than I’d ever wanted to be. That made sense too - if Aedan was interested in driving all the way out here to see the guy, then he had to be reasonably sure the guy had good information. If cities were as populated with demis as everyone kept saying, then a finder positioned close enough to get a reading on all of them would be a position to profit bigtime.

Aedan was still arguing, bickering back and forth. I had no doubt that he’d win out in the end, but just listening to him was making me stressed about the whole deal.

He looked up as I opened the car door, unbuckling myself. “What? Hey, where are you- I-I mean, yes. I can-” His eyes held mine for a single second, a question waiting there, but the conversation pulled him away before I could reply.

I shut the car door, locking him and his argument back into the cab, and strode towards the building.

A smile spread across my face at the sight of the ATM waiting just inside the door. Not that seeing it was a surprise, but it was good to know that one more problem was taken care of.

The number that appeared on the screen was smaller than I expected. “God damn it,” I muttered under my breath, pulling more money out anyway. He’d pay me back, one way or another. We needed someone to clean the grout in the crew house’s tiled bathroom floors, after all. The thought of Aedan stuck scrubbing for hours was enough to lighten my mood a little.

And however much my bank account cried, we couldn’t go to meet the finder empty-handed.

Aedan was still on the phone when I slid back into the car, tucking my wallet into my jacket pocket, but the tenor of the conversation had changed entirely. He was leaning back, not hunched over as though he was on the verge of strangling the person on the other end. And there was a victorious light in his eyes that was brand new.

“Right,” he said, nodding. “Yeah, yeah. I can get there. Twenty minutes?”

I bit back a groan. We had to be close, if he was thinking we’d catch up that fast. Suddenly, the streets around us didn’t look so mundane. I settled a little lower in my seat and tried to convince myself that it wasn’t like demis were so common. They wouldn’t come pouring out of the woodwork just because we stopped to get gas.

The sound of Aedan’s phone clicking shut brought my rambling, fearmongering thoughts to an end. I jumped, looking at him. “So-”

“We’re good. They’re not happy, but they weren’t being reasonable, either,” Aedan said, cranking the key. The engine spluttered to life again. “Jesus fuck. How much is it to ask to actually see who I’m talking to?”

“These days?” I said dryly. “I’m pretty sure actually wanting to go interact with someone is an oddity. They’d probably prefer to do it over the phone or-”

“Or email, or messaging, or any of the other damn shortcuts we’ve got,” Aedan said, hitting the accelerator hard enough to push me back into my seat. We turned back onto the road with a squeal of tires. “I’m not living under a rock, Jon. But this is business.”

“They probably also want to avoid getting shot.”

He made a face, but didn’t argue the point.

I reached into my bag, pawing through my possessions there. “So where are we going?”

“There’s a warehouse out on the edge of town. An old shipping company used it as a stockpile about a decade past. It’ll be nice and quiet.”

I froze, one hand still stuck into my once-neatly-folded clothes. “A warehouse.”

“Did I stutter?”

“Aedan, what the hell?” I demanded, straightening. “Why exactly do you think we met Noah in a restaurant?”

“Because he couldn’t attack you there.”

“If you know that, then why the hell are we doing this?”

“Because they don’t want to be somewhere they can’t defend themselves,” Aedan snapped. “That was your territory, even if Noah didn’t like it. This is theirs, all right? If we don’t like it, tough titties. It’s their finder we’re renting.”

And if we disagreed too hard, they’d just tell us to get lost. I turned back to my bag, not in the least mollified by Aedan’s explanation. No part of this sounded good.

But Greyson had dealt with outsiders all the time. He made it sound normal. He hadn’t been surprised to see Jake when he’d showed up alongside Matt, and he’d seemed every bit as comfortable when it was me on his doorstep.

“Fine,” I muttered, leaning forward again. “If I get shot again, I’m going to-”

“No one’s getting shot, Jonny,” Aedan said, and I could hear the laugh in his voice. “Calm down. What the hell are you even doing? Sit up. I can’t see-”

“I’m looking for something,” I said, ignoring him completely. A thrill of satisfaction shot through me as I saw it - one lonely winter glove sitting all the way at the bottom.

I made a pleased noise, pulling it free. It bounced gently, coming to a stop in front of me as I held it aloft.

Aedan raised one eyebrow. “Uh...What exactly are you-”

“Quiet,” I said, popping the center console open.

He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t say anything, either. He glanced towards me, his eyes flicking back towards the road and returning, to watch as I pulled my necklace out of its hiding place. He wanted to - his lips were pressed into a severe, disapproving line, and from the way he kept wrinkling his nose, he was holding himself back.

I hesitated, cupping the pendant in the palm of my hand. It felt good. It was beyond good - it was like a prickling on the back of my neck I’d barely realized was there had vanished, slipped away.

Aedan cleared his throat.

Right. I pulled the wrist on the winter glove open with one hand, letting the necklace slide inside. It disappeared into one of the fingers.

“There,” I said, stuffing the whole glove into one of my coat pockets.

“Mind explaining what all that’s about?” Aedan said, only a little frostily.

It was my turn to fix him with an amused look. “I had assumed you wanted me to actually be able to read if the finder’s lying or not.”

“Oh. Yeah.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Fine, I guess.”

“Am I speaking-”

“No. You’re fine. Just be careful.”

I chuckled. “They’re going to feel I’m casting when I play polygraph, aren’t they? Anyone who’s watching, that is.”

Aedan nodded slowly, his expression suddenly solemn. “Yeah. And...it’s probably fine.”

“Probably.”

“It’s a big world out there. There’s probably no one watching. Let’s just not give them more of a lead on us than we need to. Now shut up and help me with directions.” He waved a hand toward my phone, forgotten in the cupholder. “I have no fucking idea where this address is.”

I rolled my eyes, reaching for my phone, and tried to pretend not to feel the nervousness beginning to set in.

“You’re sure about this.”

Aedan glanced over his shoulder, grinning. “What? You afraid?”

I leaned forward, eyeing the worn-down building beyond Aedan. “I already said I didn’t want to get shot. I’m not laughing, here.” I wasn’t, either. The warehouse lay right where Aedan had described, position on the edge of town where a lonely, rusted-over pair of railroad tracks wound through the grasses. Once, it’d probably been a fine building. Now, the brick was crumbling in patches, and just looking at it made me feel like I needed a tetanus shot.

But Aedan had already pushed the door open, letting cold air fill the car again. “Come on. They’re waiting.”

“We’re three minutes early,” I said, kicking my bag a little lower under the dashboard. “Can I put my stuff in the trunk?”

“Afraid someone’ll steal it?”

I chuckled wearily, glancing up and down the block. The only buildings in sight were equally as dismal as the warehouse. “The thought occurred to me, yeah.”

“No one’s going to want your pajamas. Come on.”

“Aedan, let’s-” I began, but stopped. Aedan had turned before I’d gotten the first word out, bouncing his way up the sidewalk with every outward appearance of confidence.

The car waited, my last hope for escape. With one last sigh, I turned to follow Aedan, trudging up towards the massive double doors leading in.

I’d expected them to be locked. The place was abandoned, after all. But when Aedan pushed on the handle, putting his shoulder into the door, it opened with an ear-splitting shriek.

Again, my steps slowed. It was dark inside. “Aedan. Aedan.”

“Hurry up, Jonny. You’re embarrassing me,” he hissed over his shoulder, glaring my way. And then he turned on his heel, pushing deeper into the building.

Fine. Fine. Swallowing up the last of my protests, I grabbed the rusted-out handle, hurrying on after him.

The door clicked shut, sending me into darkness.

No, not darkness, I saw. My eyes were adjusting little by little, adjusting to cope with the differential between the snow-bright outdoors and the room I stood in. It wasn’t pitch black - there were fixtures overhead, dim and yellowed with age but very much there. They cast a flickering light over the room.

My heart froze. Through the murky half-light and the pain of my eyes, I could see them - three figures standing on the far side of the warehouse.

Aedan lingered, half-turned to face me. “Come on,” he hissed. “They’re waiting.”

I wanted to go back to the car. They were looking at me, and they didn’t look happy. But Aedan swaggered forward, grinning winningly at the trio, so it wasn’t like I had a lot of choice.

Feeling the comforting weight of the pistol I’d tucked under my jacket before we left, I scuttled after him.

“Morning,” Aedan said, raising one hand in a wave. “Glad we could catch you guys.”

One of them grunted. I shivered. And then I gave them a closer look, trying to figure out just how much trouble we were in. There were three of them. Two could have been carbon-copy twins of each other - I wasn’t small, and they stood a good three inches taller than me. They loomed over Aedan. I knew better than to hope they weren’t demis.

The third looked almost...normal. He sat on a crate in the middle, drumming his fingers against the plastic. Where the other two looked like they might be bodybuilders under their jackets, with mops of greasy, unwashed black hair, the man in center had a bit of pudge to him.

A smile tugged at my lips, despite myself. The finder - and his bodyguards, then? It seemed accurate enough, and without anyone to contradict me, I decided to run with it.

Slowly, carefully enough to not draw their eye, I slid my hand into my pocket. One probing finger found my necklace, all the way at the bottom of the glove.

The finder nodded at Aedan, his fingers still tapping against the crate. “You’re Greg?”

“And you’re Justin.” On Aedan’s lips, it wasn’t a question. “Cool. I hate to drag you all the way out here but my friend and I needed some information.”

“Whatever,” Justin muttered, shaking his head. “So what’s it going to be? Let’s just hurry up.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I’d heard the dollar amounts Aedan had been throwing around over the phone, and I could feel the little bundle of cash I’d taken out burning a hole in my pocket. The guy might be missing his dungeon raid, but he’d come out far enough in the black that he shouldn’t be whining.

“It’s simple,” Aedan said, leaning back on his heels. He shoved his hands into his pockets. If it was an act, it was a good one. “My friend and I are passing through the region, and it’s been a while. Figured it was time to get the lay of the land again He’s a bit interested in a particular type of relic.”

“But he’s a demi,” Justin said, glancing to me. I flinched, feeling his eyes on me. “I can tell that much - so what’s…” He shook his head. “Who gives a fuck. Hurry it up, man.”

“He’s a collector,” Aedan said, spreading his hands disarmingly. A shiver ran down my spine. When he’d shifted, stretching his arms, I’d seen the faint outline of a knife under his sleeve. Damn it, Aedan. “Anyway. So, we’re looking for a few different schools of magic. Can you read that much?”

“Sometimes,” Justin said, folding his arms. “Not for cheap.”

“We didn’t come empty-handed. So-”

I glanced away - and froze. One of the bodyguards was watching us with pointed disinterest, letting his gaze drift to the door as though watching for our invisible friends to come sprinting in.

But the other one was staring at Aedan, his eyes narrowed. His brows pulled together, furrowing. If he thought any harder, I’d start to expect to see smoke come pouring from his ears.

I had no idea what his problem was, but if it had to do with Aedan, that narrowed the possibilities significantly. And none of them were good. “Right,” I said, cutting Aedan off. He turned to me with an irritated noise - and so did the others. I smiled, feeling my palms beginning to sweat. Good. If their eyes were on me, they weren’t on Aedan. “I...I’ve got an interest, you see. I’d like to find any sort of relic that would...would weaken other people. Temper their magic, maybe. Let me get an edge on them.”

God, I didn’t want to come right out and say it. A relic that would nullify someone else’s abilities would be broken as hell, after all. Forget Aedan - everyone would want something like that. For the first time, the truth of how difficult Aedan’s search was really sank in.

Justin glowered at me. “Oh, that’s it, is it?”

“You know. That sort of thing,” I said, offering him a smile. Part of me hoped it’d loosen up the man.

It did not. His expression was as dour as ever - and over his shoulder, I could see the suspicious bodyguard tear his eyes off me again, turning back to Aedan.

“Hey, Justin,” he began, stepping forward.

“I-It could be other things, too,” I said, improvising wildly. “M-Maybe something like a vampire relic? Has anyone cropped up of late with that sort of thing? I’m interested in lots of stuff, really. Maybe you’ve seen something unusual?”

“What’d you say your name was?” the bodyguard said, coming to a rest alongside his finder. His hand rested on Justin’s shoulder, more protectively than I was comfortable with.

“That’s Greg,” I said, waving a hand aimlessly in his direction. “Now, have you-”

“You’re that immortal bastard, aren’t you?”

I flinched at the bodyguard’s words. My blood chilled to ice. To his credit, Aedan didn’t so much as twitch. He shrugged, his every motion slow and methodical. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you guys wanting to do some work here, or are we wasting our time?”

“What’s wrong, Doug?” Justin said, looking up to his friend.

Doug glared at Aedan, pushing his finder a step farther back. “I know this asshole. Kyle told me about him, few years back. Told me he had a run-in with some red-haired fucker trying to buy information.”

“There are lots of redheads out there,” Aedan said, shaking his head. “Don’t be like that.” He’d crossed his arms, I saw with more than a little dread. The gesture put the knife under his sleeve within arm’s reach.

“He’s just one guy,” I said, shaking my head once. “Come on. Let’s just-”

“I’m not wrong,” Doug snapped. “Heard all about it. Kyle didn’t get paid or nothin’, either. This ginger bastard just walked in, heard his piece, then ran for the door.”

“Fascinating,” I muttered under my breath, glaring at Aedan. I couldn’t find it in me to be surprised.

“I don’t know who your buddy ran into, but you’re being ridiculous,” Aedan said. A flush was rising in his cheeks, though, and he didn’t so much as look my way.

“Ridiculous?” the bodyguard said, his voice rising. He took another step forward. Both Aedan and I shied back. “Said one of his guys got cut, when they tried to stop ‘im from running. Got infected. Was a real mess. They wound up shooting the guy before he could leave..”

Aedan raised his hand. “Then why-”

“Only, this blonde bitch showed up a week later asking questions. Had pictures and everything. Seemed to know a whole lot more. And they didn’t play nice.” Doug shook his head, his face beet-red. I wasn’t sure if it was from anger or anxiety, but I didn’t like the looks of it. “Two of his demis died.”

“Fuck,” Justin whispered, stiffening. “Someone...Someone go get-”

It was just a tiny movement from the corner of my eye. Aedan’s eyes flicked to meet mine, peering over his shoulder.

What did he want? Was he expecting me to solve this? It was sounding a lot like he’d dug himself a hole when he’d crossed paths with the asshole last. How was that my fault? How was I supposed to pull him out of that one?

My eyes snapped front again. Justin took a step back, sheltered behind Doug’s arm. And I saw the second bodyguard move. He wasn’t watching the door anymore. As I watched, his hand twitched, jerking towards his jacket.

“Nice meeting all of you,” Aedan said, his face going white. “Maybe next time.” His hand closed around my wrist, pulling. He didn’t have to. I was already stumbling away, my pulse thundering.

Doug lunged forward, his eyes darting back and forth between us. “Hold on, now!” he snarled. “I’m not-”

“Fucking hurry up,” I heard Aedan snap, pulling harder. I stumbled, torn between my need to watch the trio of opposing demis and look where I was going. I caught myself at the last moment, straightening with a huff.

“Doug!” Justin cried, from somewhere behind the pair of bodyguards. “Don’t-”

Doug just shook his head, abandoning his coat and raising a hand. “They’ll wait,” he said, his words half-hidden behind my need to get farther away. “I’m not dealing with all that. Hell no.” How perfect, that Aedan had made himself an enemy. How shocking.

The ground rumbled under my feet, quivering and shaking. Dust fell from overhead. My eyes snapped up, searching the ancient timbers overhead.

They were demis - all of them. And without any knowledge of their relics or their abilities…

My hand plunged into my pocket, sliding into the glove waiting there. The necklace was cold against my finger, pressing awkwardly on my skin.

“All of you stop it, right now,” I cried, raising my voice and glaring at the three. “Justin. Doug. Whoever the fuck you are. Stop what you’re doing and freeze.” Names helped, somehow. There were three of them - I’d held three before. It was manageable.

But even if I’d done it before, that didn’t keep the weight of it from pressing in on my skull as my magic rose to answer the call. I winced, one eye twitching, but didn’t let go.

Doug froze, one hand still outstretched. The whole scene came grinding to a halt.

“God damn it,” I heard Aedan mutter from behind me.

I wet my lips, keeping my eyes fixed on the demi. “All right,” I whispered, taking a step to the side. “No sudden movements. Everyone calm the hell down.” Aedan tugged on my wrist again, pulling me towards the exit. I pulled back. All three of them were in view by then, arrayed against the grungy backdrop of the warehouse.

Doug’s face was going bone-white by the second. His fingers twitched, like he was trying to reach for something just out of reach.

“No magic,” I snapped, glaring at him. “Take your relic off. You too.” My eyes shifted to the second bodyguard, half out in front of their finder.

Both of them shivered, fighting me every step of the way. My headache blossomed, coming to life as I pushed back.

The sound of metal hitting the floor echoed through the warehouse. I didn’t look to see what they’d dropped. I took another step back, trying to remember the way to the car. “Aedan.”

“Right. Justin,” Aedan snapped. His hand gripped my shoulder, guiding me back. “Time to hurry up, kid.”

The finder shook like a leaf, stumbling to the side until he was nearly invisible behind his companions. “I-I don’t-”

Aedan pulled his knife free, glinting in the faint light of the warehouse. “Justin. I’m not fucking with you. Any anti-magic relics in the area. Now.”

Doug’s eyes followed the blade as Aedan stepped closer, brandishing the knife.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Justin said, waving his hands. “That’s not- Let me look, okay? I can look.”

Aedan’s eyes flicked to me. I nodded, looking back to the bodyguards. Justin wasn’t lying. They might be a little on the distrustful side, and they hadn’t actually helped us yet, but he was telling the truth about looking.

Of course, with the way the world was beginning to pulse, the ache slowly building, I wasn’t entirely looking forward to holding the three of them while the finder did his digging. I hadn’t signed up for that, damn it.

But Aedan paused, close enough to Doug to rest his blade against the bigger man’s chest, and waited.

Justin scrabbled, grabbing at something around his wrist, and fell still.

The two bodyguards shifted, looking at me. Their shoulders settled, falling back to something closer to the relaxed posture they’d had before. I took a shuddering gasp of air as the drain of magic from me slowed. Maybe they’d finally realized that fighting wasn’t going to get them anywhere, I thought sourly. I took another step closer to Aedan. We still had to get to the door - and we still had to get away. This whole thing was stupid. We hadn’t come here to fight.

Then again, I couldn’t exactly blame the man for jumping the gun, if he’d heard of Aedan before. Much less if people had died. The man didn’t exactly win friends for himself.

“Aedan,” I muttered, my voice low. “Maybe we should-”

The hairs on the back of my neck tingled, like a breeze brushing against my skin in the dead air of the warehouse. The sound of footsteps pounding against the concrete floor screamed out a heartbeat after. I stiffened, turning - and something caught me about the midsection.

Not something. Someone. Their weight slammed into me, twisting and pushing madly. I yelped, throwing my hands up, and took the first punch on my forearm instead of my face.

The second blow hammered into my midsection, driving the air from my lungs. I wheezed, crumpling inward.

The world twisted before I could recover. I watched, oddly detached, as the ceiling overhead tilted. A hollow grunt slipped out as I hit the concrete floor hard.

A blur of motion drew my eye - Aedan, leaping towards the pair of us. Doug grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Aedan snarled, slashing out. Doug bellowed, the sound furious and pained, and dropped him. The immortal spun, twisting to face me-

-and stopped dead in his tracks as a weight settled on my chest.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything to defuse the madness that was descending around us.

Something cold and metallic jammed under my chin, forcing my head back. I was left staring at the man kneeling on my chest, pressing a gun into my skin.

He was watching Aedan, not me. Like I wasn’t even a threat. Before I had time to be irritated about it, he glanced down.

When he saw me watching him, he smiled. There wasn’t an ounce of friendliness in the expression.

“Not another fucking word.”