“And that is why I agreed to work with you. In Italy, witches have less than six cities where we can own a business. It’s outrageous. I’m all for peace amongst all creatures, in fact, if we destroy that I will be severely ticked off. I’m not questioning why I’m here, merely pointing out why no one else would help.”
“American witches are loyal to their High Priestesses. And all High Priestesses are loyal to Ivy. I needed one who wouldn’t tell her our plans.”
“No, because you did that yourself when you felt cornered by a fucking vampire.”
“Enough!” His voice boomed in the quiet of early morning. Witch fire glowed around his hands as fury burned across his nerves. “I am in charge. It is my plan. You are here to help and be elevated to a higher status when we return and I stake my claim for you as Witch Elect. You do not challenge me or belittle me.”
He hissed the words and noticed a window jerking up from a building nearby.
“’Ey! Quiet down there!” A grumbly voice called down.
Jared winced. Drawing attention to them was not part of the plan. Only to the other Supernaturals. Thankfully, he could see the bar at the end of the next block. “There.” He pointed, walking once more, willing the anger to settle and calm within him. “We’re going to grab a drink and hide out for a bit longer. Then we can sleep and get ready for the next attack.”
“I thought we were time hopping. Wasn’t the point to make sure this didn’t seem like hysteria in one period?”
Jared sighed. The witch was correct. “I have three vials of djinn blood. If Atreus doesn’t make his way back, we’ll have to consider if it’s worth it.”
“The Salem Witch Trials are all you need to remember to know it’s worth it. If people believe it to be something in the water or the air, they’ll write it off. This will have been for nothing.”
He snarled. She was correct again. Perhaps when this was over he would speak to her about a more permanent situation for them. Jared didn’t need or want a love match, but he could use a capable partner. Caliste proved herself at every turn to be able to keep up with him.
“I found more than I bargained for when you answered my request.”
“Sure did. As a thank you for all I’ve done to help you, you can buy my drink.” She didn’t bother to look at him as she stepped into the bar.
Standing on the street, Jared turned to look behind him once more. Chaos should have rung out over the entire area. All he heard was silence. If Ivy interfered, everything could be ruined. All the more reason to perform the spell and go where she won’t be. Sighing, Jared cracked his neck. The sun grew higher in the sky, ending the attack from the vampires he basically coerced to attack him. If he wasn’t careful, Jared could find himself a different man when his mission was over.
He couldn’t worry about that now. Now he had wolves to hunt and witches to trick. The fate of the world rested on his shoulders and all he wanted after a night on the run was a stiff drink.
13
The sun was high in the sky by the time Ivy finished the necessary magic. Her body ached, and her vision was so blurry she couldn’t tell the sky from the ground—despite there being many things keeping them apart. The ache seemed to settle deep into her bones causing them to feel as if they tingled. Her feet screamed at her to sit, but she couldn’t. Not with the sun out.
“Is it done?” Elijah alternated from concern to barely restrained aggression for the better part of the morning.
Weary, Ivy didn’t dare to turn her head. “I believe so.”
Every fiber of her being suffered, and Ivy was too drained to do anything about it. The level of magic she performed typically required a coven of witches. Not a single witch who’d not eaten or slept.
“Believe so?”
“Elijah, your alpha is showing.” She sighed, and her knees shook. “On second thought, better hope your good citizen is showing because I might collapse.”
At once, he was behind her. “Lean on me.” He scooped her arm around his neck without a thought.
The slight pressure relief was welcome, but likely not enough. “We need to get back to the hotel. I haven’t eaten, you’re wearing a horridly incorrect outfit, and there’s not enough magic in the world to keep me awake after unweaving a hex and casting a memory-altering spell. One that may not have worked.”
“We’ll stay here then. I seem to remember payment after checkout could be arranged on certain circumstances.”
“We can’t go inside. I’ve got no magic left to clean up the blood or bodies. Let the cops handle it.”
He was silent for a moment before shifting suddenly and lifting her off her feet in a very compassionate embrace like a man carrying his wife into their new home.
“What are you doing,” she tried to hiss, but her words held no fire, and she merely sounded tired.
“I’m taking you inside. I look enough like a cop. Let them check the rooms and harass us if they need.” He finally looked at her. “You look like shit. I’m not risking walking a few blocks.”
“So you’re going to pick a lock or something?”
“Or something I suppose.”
She nodded, or at least she thought she did. Held in his arms, Ivy couldn’t resist the lull of sleep tugging at the edges of her subconscious. She didn’t want to admit it out loud, but she knew Elijah would protect her. Without another thought, Ivy gave into the sleep calling out to her.
* * *
Ivy groaned. Waking up after such an energy expenditure never felt like heaven, but she was worse for the wear this time. Every muscle still cried with tension, and her head held a dizzying ringing sound she knew only she could hear.
Leave your eyes shut just a little longer.
“Are you feeling any better?” Elijah’s voice floated to her from somewhere to her right.
“How did you know I was awake?”
“Your breathing changed.” The sound of his footsteps indicated he walked closer.
“You can hear that?”
“I’m a wolf, Ivy, I can hear almost everything.”
Shit.
“You’re wondering if I can hear the addictive way your heartbeat sped up when I got too close to you when we’d bump into one another last month.”
“Well, there’s no need for me to ask it now.” A part of her wanted to smack him for invading her body, but she found it oddly attractive that he could just know things most men needed to be told.
He chuckled. “Can you open your eyes?”
She nodded and winced. “I just don’t particularly want to.”
“Well,” the bed shifted under his weight as he sat down on the corner. “I don’t think you have a choice. Remember where we are? When we are?”
She didn’t need prodding. “Of course I do. We’re stuck in the past with a psychopath who may or may not have already cast a time travel spell that shouldn’t exist but does and destroyed history.”
“Good to know you don’t need a recap.”
“Hardly,” With a groan, Ivy forced her eyes to open, pleased when the room wasn’t immediately flooded with light. Night. “It’s night time.”
“It is. You were pretty out of it.” He nodded to the glass of water beside the bed. “You ate some bread and eggs. It was all I could find in the hotel’s kitchen without getting noticed. Probably need some more fluids because you passed out the second you finished the food.”
She flushed, suddenly embarrassed that Elijah spent his day caring for her. “You protected me.”
“I don’t know what you think about me,” the words were a low growl, “But I am a protector. I don’t care that your kind and mine battled for centuries. We haven’t, not beyond a few heated exchanges.”
Ivy couldn’t tell if he meant her random blow up on the street, or the times she’d melted under his touch. “Thank you.”
The silence in the room hung around them. “Did what I did work?”
“Yes and no,” Elijah shrugged. “Your powers are exceptional
, but the vampire bite marks were too recognizable on the bodies.”
“So people are still shouting vamp?”
He nodded.
“We need to go back and stop it before it happened. We have the blood. I’ve got two vials.”
“Wrong,” Elijah’s voice hadn’t raised, but his tone left little room to challenge him.
“I don’t take orders from you, Elijah.” The goodwill and fuzzy feelings toward him fizzled out.
“It has nothing to do with that. The djinn said he would try something like this again in nineteen twenty-five. We need to get there and pray we aren’t too late. We can undo any lasting damage later.”
“If we make it back home.”
“We will.” He took hold of her hand to tug her upright. “I promise you. I will get you home no matter the cost.”
Ivy shivered at the promise lingering in Elijah’s words. She didn’t question him. She didn’t have to. All that could be done was ensure they followed Jared to know exactly what needed to be done—if they couldn’t stop him beforehand.
“Okay, then.” Ivy forced herself to stand up and ignore the pain lancing through her body. “First things first, I need to get to Lita’s mother’s shop. She’ll have a healing drought to speed up the drain.”
“What’s second?”
She wasn’t sure why, but telling Elijah the next bit concerned her.
“We need a warlock to cast the spell.”
“Fantastic, you know one.”
“Yup, I know one.” Just leave it at that. There’s no need to tell the sexy man currently interested in making your toes curl anymore information about Patrick.
“Good, if you think you’re up to it, we’d better head out. If it gets much darker I worry, we could be attacked. Jared saw me, who knows how many vamps he could seduce with djinn magic. We’re not safe.”
“How do you feel about petty theft?”
His eyes went deadpan. “I’m a cop, Ivy.”
“Yes, and you’re wearing a police uniform. Time to pick some locks and get us some clothes that don’t draw more attention to us than we need.”
* * *
Elijah scowled as he glanced between Ivy and the warlock. She’d set him up to look like a damned fool. No, she didn’t. You want to fuck her, not marry her. Why would she think you’d care the helpful warlock happened to be her damn fiancé at one time? Elijah scarcely covered a snort. Why do you care?
“Does this make sense?” Ivy finished speaking, her hands no longer gesticulating in the air as she weaved the story of the last few hours of their lives. “I don’t have any other way of proving it to you,” she passed Elijah back his phone.
“It makes perfect sense. It is remarkable, but anything is possible with magic. Why not this?” Patrick didn’t take his eyes of Ivy. “What I don’t understand is why it’s not me with you right now. It makes more sense for two casters to be involved. I can’t imagine the lengths you went to in find and negotiate peace with the alpha.” Still, no glance in Elijah’s direction.
“Yes, well,” Ivy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she uttered the common phrase Elijah knew indicated panic. “It’s a long story. It seemed easier to bring someone with Elijah’s skills.”
“Elijah, huh?” Patrick did glance at him then, hazel eyes lit with judgment. “Didn’t know we’d ever be on a first-name basis with the leader of the pack.”
Ivy swallowed.
Come on, keep it together. On the walk over, they’d decided keeping details as sparse as possible would be best. Their goal was to keep history basically the same, and if people knew of the Council, or even their personal fates, things could get sketchy.
“The future is quite different.”
“So, you’re here because you need me to send you nearly thirty decades into the future with an object from the future.” He screwed his face up. “Do you have such an object?”
Mrs. Perrow scoffed from behind the cauldron she’d pulled out after closing her herbal storefront. “That’s not possible. None of this is!”
“I do,” Ivy glanced to Elijah as if seeking his approval. “My earrings were a gift from my mother. The odds of this seem exceedingly unlikely, but I remember buying them in New York on a trip.”
Every nerve in Elijah’s body was on edge. If they didn’t hurry, they might lose Jared all together. “Not that I don’t understand the delicacy of this situation, but we’re running out of time.”
“My, my,” Patrick shifted his head, and a strand of black hair fell in front of his eyes. “You have strange speech patterns. Is this a future occurrence or a wolf trait?”
Elijah snarled, and Ivy leaped off the chair to stand in front of him. She stared into his eyes but spoke to Patrick.
“Things are different in the future. I would appreciate your cooperation. Elijah is an alpha, he is to be as respected as my mother or your High Priest.” Her hand reached out and stroked down his arm.
Elijah didn’t enjoy the way her small touch seemed to calm the beast within him.
“Very well then, why do I sense we are no longer set to be wed in this future of yours?”
Elijah wrapped his hand around Ivy’s, tugging her against him and breaking every rule they’d discussed on the walk to Uptown. “You no longer share a common path.”
Ivy shook out of his embrace but said nothing. If she didn’t mind his strange bout of possessiveness, he’d forget it ever happened.
“Please, Patrick. It’s one time. I know we’ll catch Jared this time. I have to believe it.”
“Jared?” Patrick arched a bushy brow. “I know that name.”
“Yes, he’s a little older than we are. Now you might know him as a family man. He lost them . . . ” her voice trailed off. “He’s different now, and he isn’t seeking time travel to bring them back.”
Elijah hadn’t known the warlock lost his family. It would seem the details left out occurred during the human wars. If that were the case, it was out of place for him to wish to teach humanity a lesson, while Ivy wanted time travel magic to save her family.
Except if he changes history, he stands a chance at saving them as a byproduct. Brilliant.
“Why me? Your father is a skilled warlock. He’d believe you.”
Again, Elijah moved without thinking his action through. He had to protect Ivy from answering the difficult question. All at once, his arm pressed against Patrick’s neck as he pinned the warlock against the wall. “Will you help us or not?”
“Fotiá!”
Heat blasted him, singing his arms and burning like molten lava. Elijah dropped his arm from Patrick’s neck just as Ivy shouted in Greek and a gust of air raced past him, putting out the fire.
“Enough!” Ivy’s voice boomed in the small space. “We came here for help,” snarled at him. “Control yourself, wolf. Mrs. Perrow, I’d appreciate it if you did not kill my current partner.”
“Partner?” The older witch hissed as if she’d been the one burned.
“Yes, we were sent here. Together. We will stop Jared. Together. And we will survive. Together. I am eternally grateful you allowed me to have that tonic, but I will not let anyone attack anyone else.” Her chest heaved with each shouted word.
Elijah should want to challenge her. To snarl and bark at her that he didn’t take orders from a witch. He didn’t. Somehow, for some reason, shouting at Ivy seemed displeasing to him. My god, when this is over you will take her to bed and get this all out of your system.
“Patrick,” Ivy turned to face the warlock. “Will you help us? I came to you because of the connection we share. It will aid the magic. We’re running out of time, and I’d rather not waste more of it putting out fights between toddlers.”
“Watch how you speak to me,” Mrs. Perrow warned.
“Or you’ll tell my mother?” Ivy retorted, dropping her hands on hips.
Electricity charged the air in the shop, a feat Elijah didn’t understand since it had yet to be invented if he remembered cor
rectly. Bile churned in his stomach as he took a step forward and offered Patrick his hand. “My apologies. Though I’m from the future, I still fall prey to past insults.”
Patrick kept his sight on Ivy, but he did shake Elijah’s hand. “How do I do this? You mentioned a barrier spell prevented you from getting close to Jared, but it clearly dragged you hear.”
“Yes. I believe a powerful binding spell should do the trick. I didn’t have time to invoke a circle. I was rushed. A stronger one should keep you here.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“If it doesn’t, I’ll personally make sure Elijah doesn’t kill you while we finish this mission, and then find a way to send you home when we’re sure the future is safe.”
She’s a damn warrior. Minute by minute, Ivy unwrapped the thread of the shawl covering her personality, showing more of herself to Elijah than she likely meant to.
“Mrs. Perrow, will you help with the binding spell for Patrick or should I find Lita myself?”
“Do not bother her. She’s with a suitor. I will do it.” Mrs. Perrow sighed. “Goddess only knows why.”
“Thank you. Elijah and I will step out while you do it.”
She slipped her hands in his, entwined her fingers with his, and pulled him toward the door. Elijah didn’t want to acknowledge the way her dainty little hand fit perfectly within his. When the door shut behind him, she slapped him across the face.
“Are you crazy?”
His wolf clawed at the surface, but he kept the shift at bay. “I might ask the same of you for slapping a shifter.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me. Not after you spent so many hours keeping me safe.” She took a step closer to him, her eyes burning into his. “I don’t understand what’s happening between us. It might be the insane situation, or maybe all those months of desiring you was because the universe understood what we could be together.”
His heart slammed in his chest as the familiar scent of her arousal touched laced the air. Ivy took a daring leap, vocalizing something as incredulous as a legitimate connection between them. The need to touch her overruled all logic. Nothing made sense about his initial attraction to her, but now, after spending time together, he understood she wasn’t the frigid witch he thought her to be.
Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 229
