War of Prey

36) Trouble

"From Heaven, she was born but Hell is where she will die."

***

He stands in the room while Demi places his hands over Gemini's face and the cool numbing sensation slips from his palm. Demi's special ability as and Asheri is the gift of healing, he can heal most wounds with just his hands from magic as was gifted to him by the žetelac pepela. Gemini has always been jealous of the other Asheri because he hadn't been given a Marca, Catalan for Brand nor a Gift. His pocket buzzes as Demi finishes up.

"Who is it? Ambrose, asking for relief of demon-watching?" Marcus laughs.

"Shut up, you don't know her," Gemini hisses as he rips his phone from his pocket and sees a heart-dropping message. Gem, I'm sorry. "Dammit!"

"Is it him?" Maezie asks from the door, everyone ignores her, but Gemini casts his attention to her and waves her over.

"Can I talk to you outside please?" Maezie nods and walks out of the room waiting for Gem to follow. Demi looks at him with a mocking frown.

"What? She's proving to be more helpful than any of you, at least she is trying to help them while you just stand there criticizing Flame. You can't imagine for one second that she is in trouble, that she isn't the bad guy, and we Asheri are supposed to stand together. 'Junts estem, per la vida i la mort, respirant les cendres d'aquells davant nostre.'"

"Gemi-" Demi begins but Gemini is already out the door pulling Maezie into one of the tiny alcoves in the wall.

"Ambrose took Flame and I just got a message saying 'Gem, I'm sorry.' No one calls me Gem but Flame, I know it was her. There is something wrong Maezie and I need to find them, can you track their location through something of theirs? A shirt or a toothbrush, something?"

"Yes, I can track them. I'll need something of Ambrose's, anything will work. For Flame I need something with a heavy scent on her, like underclothes or something that presses against her skin," Maezie answers, folding her hands in front of her.

"Underclothes? Like bra or underwear? I cannot touch her underclothes!"

"Then I'll risk someone finding out about this and killing me, mind you, I can be executed for this Gemini, I'm not an Asheri."

"They won't execute someone who helped save London if I know Flame this is bigger than just her, bigger than her and I, and I can't trust anyone else to help me."

"Okay, get the items for me and I can track them, we should know where they are in about ten minutes." Gem nods and rushes off to Ambrose's room taking his open book, Stephen King's It. He silently curses himself as he realizes all of Flame's clothing is in her room, currently locked as she always has it. The balcony. A scrap of her shirt had torn off when that thing had left her body, hopefully, that will be enough for Maezie to track her. Taking the back stairs will get him back to the balcony without being noticed, he can slip in, get the scrap, and get back to Maezie quickly. To his surprise and luck, he was not noticed by anyone and was able to get back to Maezie in five minutes uninterrupted. He hands the items to Maezie and uses the book to track Ambrose first.

She closes her eyes and tightens her hands over the cover, a small vein protruding in her neck. It glows a faint white before it burns a bright red and she drops it with a gasp, "I found Ambrose. He's on Blackfriars Passage, stationary."

"Flame?"

"Give me the cloth," Maezie repeats the process with the shred of Flame's shirt and her eyes flicker under her eyelids before they snap back open after long, agonizing minutes of silence. "The last trace I found of her was on Blackfriars Passage with Ambrose, then her trail cuts off abruptly. I'm sorry Gemini, but I can't see her."