Ink Bound (Ink Born Book 3) Read online

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  Ink Bound (Ink Born 3)

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  Contents

  Ink Bound (Ink Born 3)

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  Ink Bound (Ink Born 3)

  By

  Holly Evans

  Copyright Holly Evans (2017) ©. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are purely from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is fictionalised and coincidental.

  Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

  1

  I was quickly growing to hate Fein’s office. The damn elf sat behind his desk like a college principal. His leaf-green eyes were hard and predatory, the knife he was idly playing with only adding to the predatory sensation. Tyn was curled up in his small black cat form on Fein’s otherwise bare desk. The Cait Sidhe appeared to be sleeping, entirely uncaring about the meeting I had to endure.

  The cougars were standing next to me, seemingly completely relaxed while Fein looked over the small group before him. I’d put my hands behind my back to try and hide my clenched fists. He still hadn’t allowed me to return to tattooing, despite my having stopped the art thieves and finished his fucking sigils.

  Caiden, the hound I’d met in Wildrun, stood on my other side. I’d been informed that Caiden and Fein had worked together in the past. The hound seemed like a nice enough guy. He’d helped me out of a few holes in Wildrun.

  “I’m sure Mr. Corbeaux will be happy to hear I called you here today to help me deal with the slave trade present in the underground market,” Fein said, his eyes dancing with humour.

  I had demanded to know why he was allowing beings to suffer in the market. The image of the emaciated incubus slowly being drained of blood and the familiars with their filthy cramped cages and dull eyes had haunted me after I’d accompanied the cougars on a trip to the market in question. At the time, Fein had told me that it was a delicate situation and he was waiting for the appropriate time. Of course, I hated the snarky tone of his words, but I was glad to hear something was being done. No one should suffer like that. Still, I was a tattoo magician. There was no reason for me to be involved in whatever plan he had to stop the market.

  “Luka and Shadow, you will begin gathering information; I fear Mr. Corbeaux’s personality isn’t quite suited to that task. Mr. Corbeaux, you will be working with Caiden to bring your hand to hand combat up to scratch,” Fein said.

  I rolled my jaw. Tattoo magicians didn’t need to be versed in hand to hand combat. I could hold my own in a bar fight, and as far as I was concerned that was enough.

  “Don’t worry, Dacian, we’ll have you up to grade in no time,” Caiden said with a smile.

  I gave him a tight smile, not wanting to offend him.

  “You will return to tattooing in the short term, Mr. Corbeaux. Make sure to dress smartly and conduct yourself in an appropriate manner,” Fein said.

  I gave him a small nod of acknowledgement. I’d turned up to one job hung over; you’d think I’d tried to rob someone while wearing hole-y jeans, the way he acted. The fact he’d said, ‘in the short term,’ didn’t escape my notice, but I let it slip. I had to pick my fights very carefully.

  Fein continued to address the cougars for a moment, giving them instructions to speak to people I wasn’t familiar with. The ink network probed the back of my mind, testing me.

  “Kindly return Tyn before dawn,” Fein said, his gaze on me.

  I’d tuned out what he’d just said as I’d been focused on putting up mental defences against the network. I didn’t know if they’d work, but I wasn’t going to allow it to creep into my mind as and how it saw fit.

  “Of course,” I said politely.

  I didn’t know why it mattered when he returned home, he was far older than I was. Whatever, it was time for pizza and movies.

  2

  Caiden had been sleeping on our couch (and floor) in his hound form. The first morning had been memorable, to say the least. I had completely forgotten that he was staying with us and walked out into the living room to find a huge hound looking at me from our couch. His shoulder came halfway up my ribs when he stood. He could fit my entire leg in his jaws without thinking. Of course, he’d laughed at me when he saw the expression on my face. That only made it worse, hearing that thing making a growling barking sound at me. I turned a rather interesting shade of red when he shifted back into his human form and I remembered Fein had sent him to stay with us. He’d poked fun at me for the rest of the day.

  Keirn emerged from the art room just as Vyx began to shift into her human form. I spun around so as not to see her.

  “Vyx! What have we said about clothing?” I asked.

  Like most shifters, she couldn’t shift her clothing and so stood somewhere behind me entirely naked. I had no problems seeing the cougars, Caiden, or Keirn naked, but Vyx was different. She was like my little sister, and I had absolutely no desire to see my little sister naked.

  “I really don’t see the problem. This is my natural form, and you have no interest in women so you aren’t going to have stupid sexual thoughts,” Vyx said with a melodramatic sigh.

  I didn’t need to see her to know she’d rolled her eyes at me.

  “I get it. It’s stupid, but can you indulge me?” I asked.

  “Fine,” she muttered.

  Her footsteps vanished in the direction of her room, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I peeked over my shoulder to make sure that Vyx wasn’t still there, naked. I was safe.

  “Did Vyx shift in full view again?” Shadow asked with a laugh.

  I shook my head.

  “I get her view on nakedness, but I can’t help being how I am. Seeing her naked is just wrong,” I said.

  “You owe me pizza,” Vyx said.

  She stepped into the living area, fully clothed, and stood with her hands on her hips.

 
“You lost the bet. Fein’s letting you tattoo again,” she said triumphantly.

  “How the fuck did you know that?” I asked.

  She grinned at me. “You’d have been cursing up a storm and drinking the Sidhe spirits again if he hadn’t.”

  She had me there. I hated that I was predictable, but it came with friendship and familiarity.

  “Meat feast with extra meat and extra cheese,” she said.

  “Make that four,” Luka said.

  “Six,” Caiden added.

  I raised an eyebrow at them, “I’m not rich…”

  “Yes you are. You don’t spend a penny of what you’re paid,” Luka said, patting me on the back as he walked past me.

  “Pineapple with boar for me,” Keirn added.

  The evening had passed without incident. Tyn got brave and stole a piece of Keirn’s boar and pineapple pizza. Much to everyone’s horror, he seemed to enjoy it.

  I was woken by some asshole banging on the cougars’ bedroom with all they had. I groaned and pulled on my boxers before I stepped into the hallway to shout at whoever it was.

  Caiden was growling at the door.

  “They’re very happily married, sometimes they make some noise, it’s no big deal,” I said as I leaned against my doorframe.

  He shot me a glare. “They’re being harmed.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “They like it a little rough, that’s their business.”

  “No, Dacian, something’s fucking with their energies,” Keirn said blearily.

  Caiden gave up knocking and threw his full weight against the door, breaking the latch and shouldering it open. Keirn and I followed him into the cougars’ bedroom. I hadn’t dared step foot there before. I didn’t know what I’d pictured, but it wasn’t the pristine heather-grey and sky-blue room that I walked into. The bed took up half of the room, and the cougars themselves were sprawled out in the middle of said bed. The pale grey sheets were tangled around their long limbs, but it was the look of fear on their faces that made me pause. Their breathing wasn’t the steady breathing of sleep. It was ragged and harsh.

  Caiden and Keirn approached them, Caiden from the left, Keirn from the right.

  “Dacian, go and get them something sweet to drink,” Caiden said.

  I didn’t argue. I knew a dreamwalker attack when I saw one, and the poor bastards would be in rough shape when they woke. Vyx frowned at me as she emerged from her room.

  “Why?” she asked plaintively.

  “The cougars are under attack from a dreamwalker,” I said softly.

  Her mouth pinched into a scowl. She brushed past me and stalked into the kitchen.

  “They’ll need something sweet to help their systems recover. The honey from the wood elves and some of that mountain spring water would be good. I’ll add in that alchemical rose stuff, too, just to be extra sure,” she said, more to herself than anything.

  I pulled the glasses down from the cupboard and she filled them. We returned to the cougars’ room quickly, a tense silence hanging over us. Caiden and Keirn were sitting next to the very groggy cougars, who had sat up and were leaning on each other. Vyx took the glasses from me and crawled on her knees across the bed to hand the cougars the sweet drinks. They needed a little gentle prodding from Caiden to understand, but they drank them.

  “They dragged everything up, and just kept telling me to back off. ‘Fein’s sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, leave it alone.’ Again and again,” Luka said hoarsely.

  Shadow wrapped his arm around his husband’s shoulders and kissed his temple.

  “They did the same to me. All of my worst fears and memories, with the same message on repeat,” Shadow said.

  They were both trembling, and it certainly wasn’t from the cold. Their eyes were glassy with deep wrinkles set around them. Luka worried his bottom lip, while Shadow gently stroked Luka’s hand.

  “Do you have any idea who sent them?” Caiden finally asked.

  “No,” Luka said in barely more than a whisper.

  “I couldn’t see any identifying marks or features. I didn’t recognise the voice,” Shadow said.

  Caiden growled.

  “I’ll tell Fein. Dacian, put some sigils together to protect them,” the hound said.

  I bristled at his tone, but I wasn’t going to stand by and bitch when there was a risk that the cougars would suffer again when they returned to sleep. Keirn and Vyx remained close to the cougars. Keirn was making small hand gestures, elegant little weaving motions.

  “You all put a lot of work into being my network, that has some advantages,” he said without looking at me.

  I left to retrieve paper and ink rather than disturbing him.

  The ink network was slower to respond than I expected. I mentally removed my barriers and defences against it, expecting it to rush my system like an avalanche. Instead, it was quiet and cautious, small black tendrils that slipped around the edges of my mind. It remained quiet and malleable as I pushed it down into my hastily constructed sigil. The magic flowed into the broad, sweeping black lines, giving the sigil the continuous power supply to form a barrier of sorts around the cougars. It was designed to shield their minds and dream-selves from outside influence. I added in barbs to mark and harm the energies of those who tried to hurt them. I had no idea how well it would work, but I did what I could with what knowledge I had.

  The ink network slipped away without my needing to push it the moment the sigil clicked into place. The energies and threads that made up the sigil all slid into their locations, forming a matrix in my mind. I smiled and placed the paper at the edge of the cougars’ room. They’d be safe for the rest of the night.

  3

  Kyra had curled up on the cougars’ pillow and remained rooted there.

  Protect she pushed when I told her to let them sleep.

  Shadow pressed his forehead to hers and smiled.

  “I appreciate her company,” he said softly.

  Luka ran his hand down her spine, a gesture that I felt a little odd about. The cougars were good guys, but their affiliation with Fein meant that I wasn’t entirely sure just how close we were as friends. I found myself holding back, just in case. Luka’s gesture, whether conscious or not, suggested he viewed us as good friends.

  I shook the thoughts away. The poor bastard was half asleep and just wanted a little comfort. Keirn walked out of their room and shut the door behind him. Vyx had returned to bed, and Caiden had slipped away somewhere to speak to Fein on the phone.

  Keirn’s shoulders slumped. The colour had fled from his cheeks. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and guided him to the couch. Neither of us was going to sleep, not yet.

  “You look pale, old friend. How can I help?” I asked.

  He gave me a tight smile and sank back into the soft couch.

  “A little food would be welcome.”

  I stroked his hair away from his face.

  “Is this because of what you did to help Shadow and Luka?”

  He closed his eyes and leaned into my touch.

  “Yes. They aren’t elves, so it’s harder to work with their energies. The network you have all so kindly woven around me is still in its infancy, which makes it more difficult. It’s weaker, less malleable. I had to pull from the static energy and the life network to help balance their nodes,” he said, his eyes closed.

  He looked at me. “It’s all very complicated. I haven’t done this with non-elves before. I haven’t really done it with elves, either. It wasn’t necessary with my clan. There were so many of us, the network regulated and balanced itself. Our network has been growing well, but the dreamwalker threw their energy firmly out of balance. It was jagged and dark.” He frowned. “I don’t know if that’s normal for a dreamwalker attack, or if that was something more. I should know. I’m supposed to be the spiritwalker.”

  I kissed his temple and stood to get him some food.

  “You said yourself that you’re used to dealing with elves. This is a
ll new, to everyone. I’m sure you did a good job, and the cougars certainly appreciate it,” I said.

  I made it halfway to the kitchen before Caiden half growled, half whispered, “You and Keirn are very… affectionate,” in my ear.

  I jumped half out of my skin. How the fuck was a guy his size so stealthy?

  “Fuck me, Caiden!” I said.

  He gave me a feral grin in response. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the games that came with screwing the more dominant personalities once in a while, but any ideas I may have had about fucking the hound fled in that moment.

  “We’re both single, and he’s my closest friend. I don’t see the issue,” I said a little too sharply as I continued to the kitchen.

  “It wasn’t an easy decision for Isa, to end it,” he said.

  I raised an eyebrow at him and continued on my quest for bread. Someone had taken it from its usual cupboard and put it the gods only knew where. Keirn had always had peculiar ideas about where food got stored, and it seemed that someone else had equally odd ideas. I began looking in the alchemical cupboard, where we put the curres tablets, the caffeine boosts, and the like. There it was, a fresh loaf of bread, complete with Kyra-sized bite taken out of the middle.

  “He appreciated everything you did for him, but you have to admit, the chemistry was never quite there between the two of you,” Caiden said.

  I looked over at him, leaning against the kitchen counter in just his boxers. I remembered the way Isa had looked at him the first time they’d met, the expression somewhere between awe and lust.

  “We were good together,” I said.

  I thought we were. We had fun. The memories played back in my mind as I cut the bread and began looking for something to put in the sandwich. I’d never really opened up to Isa, or trusted him. The venison had been hidden behind the sweetcorn. It didn’t matter. We were both free agents, what was done was done.

  “How is he?” I asked Caiden.

  There was that feral smile again.

  “He’s good. He’s settled into his job very well. He’s turning down contracts as he’s getting so many offers. Jake’s pack dotes on him. We spar together every other day. He’s really quite something,” the hound said.