They took me to an interrogation room, which didn’t help with subduing my irritation with the whole situation. I sat for a few minutes and then paced the length of the room feeling like a caged animal, taking long strides, looking at the double-sided mirror wondering if anyone was on the other side.
The room was better than the ones I’d seen on TV, but this was the only one I’d actually ever been in. A long table had six sturdy-looking wooden chairs placed around it. But unlike those in the TV shows, which usually had plain white or some muted-color walls, this room was covered with sigils. You’d have to be pretty strong to get past them to perform any magic. There was a fire extinguisher behind a windowed steel door that seemed too big for containing just that. I assumed there were other things that they housed there “in case of emergency,” like dealing with a misbehaving supernatural malcontent. Or someone who dared not to respond to the arrogant Supernatural Guild’s head when he called her name.
I can’t believe I almost slept with this jackass!
I stopped pacing and stood in front of the two-way mirror. Glaring at it, I said, “This is a flagrant abuse of power.”
Yep, he’d been on the other side, because the moment the words came out of my mouth, he stepped in. Haughty amusement skated over the defined planes of his face as his lips curled into a grin.
“Would you like to file a report, Ms. Michaels, detailing my gross abuse of power?” He rested against the wall, one leg crossed over the other and his arms folded in front of him. He waited patiently for me to answer. He was obviously finding a peculiar pleasure in this moment, as the indigo shifter ring brightened around his light blue eyes.
“Will you put in the report that I had the audacity to try to protect you from yourself and keep you from getting yourself and others killed?” He pushed up from the wall and stood just inches from me. “Perhaps you will document your obstinacy and how you refused to let me explain things but instead left in a little huff. Will you add that you rolled your eyes and stomped out of my office? Well, that can’t possibly make me look bad, now can it, Ms. Michaels?” I hated when our conversations were reduced to him calling me by my last name. We’d passed professional courtesy weeks ago.
He’d inched so close that I could feel the warmth of his body as he brushed against mine. HIs breath wisped against my cheek as he spoke. “Would you like me to get someone to take your statement, Ms. Michaels?”
I took several steps back. “Levy,” I offered.
He studied me for a few minutes before he spoke. “It’s not you,” he said softly. “No one wants you dead, but are you willing to risk the safety of the people in this city on a wish that the other Legacy are better than what they’ve presented? I understand your desire to make things better and to be able to live openly without the threat of someone trying to hurt you. I want that for you, too. For all of them, but not the ones we had in custody.”
“You think it will stay in the dark? That there won’t be speculation or whispers of it among other Legacy? If it becomes one of those things that Harrah so handily spins the optics about and reduces to nothing more than just an ‘incident,’ what are you telling others? What they will see is that the SG supports our assassination—legally sanctioned murder. And those who never would have considered joining a person like Conner might see him as the type of savior they need. When another Conner pops up with even more followers, I guess you can unleash the Trackers and hope they get to them before they actually do a Cleanse for no other reason than to retaliate.”
“You think I didn’t consider all that? We will be monitoring Trackers—all of them. Hopefully, you will work with us to find the Legacy and form an alliance before someone like Conner does appear. It will be a preemptive operation. You’re out, and they will see that there isn’t an issue.”
“It’s a limited ‘out.’ You all know, and the Magic Council knows.” Then I considered the situation and shrugged. “Perhaps you’re right. Since you have a leak, there’s no telling who else knows about me.” I gave him a hard look. I really didn’t want to take my frustrations out on him, but his casual attitude toward the situation bothered me. I wasn’t sure whether the professionally stoic face was a mask that he presented for my benefit and that of his staff, but it made him seem indifferent and cold. I’d rather have seen him riddled with apprehension and uncertainty. Now I just saw him as a killer of my kind, no different than when he was a Tracker.
“Do I have your word you aren’t going to pursue this?” he asked.
“Of course. After all, I wouldn’t want you to threaten to arrest me for the umpteenth time.” I made an attempt at a smile but failed. I wasn’t sure why controlling my emotions was such a challenge. Perhaps I expected and needed things to end differently. This incident wasn’t neat and tidy as I’d expected it to be. My gut was telling me to be afraid, and I hated feeling afraid. Cautious, yes. I lived that way, but I hated fear. Fear made people behave irrationally, and no matter how much they understood that, they were unable to react otherwise.
He smiled. “Okay, Levy.”
“Oh, we’re back to friendly repartee, are we?”
“I was always there. You were the one who was in a mood. I just let it play out.”
“No, you didn’t. You put me in an interrogation room!”
He made a face. “There’s that mood again.” Laughing at my scowl, he said, “I’d like to see you tonight.”
“I can’t tonight.” I held his gaze. It wasn’t officially a lie and I wondered if he could tell or not.
“Do you have plans?”
If sitting in my room sulking was a plan, then yes, I had plans.
I nodded.
He gave me a simple, plaintive smile. “Have fun.” He walked over to the door and unlocked it, opened it, and extended his hand, inviting me to leave.
CHAPTER 2
I looked at my phone as I opened the door. My boss, Kalen, knew I was going to be late, but he probably didn’t expect me to be this late.
“Sorry, I was locked in an interrogation room,” I blurted as I walked into the office. I halted when I saw Blu sitting on the desk leaning into the screen that he’d turned in her direction. His coffee cup was on the table; hers was in her hand. Smiling, Midwest Barbie and Ken were both dressed like they were ready for a photo shoot. As usual, he was in a suit. Midnight blue slim fit, white shirt with the first button undone. She had on silver heels, a long, pink hooded cardigan paired with a little white shirt, and slinky black pants that hugged her curves. Pink gloss accented her supple lips and complemented her walnut-colored skin. Thick liner rimmed her eyes, and mascara created a lush veil of lashes. Corkscrew ringlets of dark brown hair tipped with blue blended well with her ensemble.
Kalen shifted his gaze from the screen to me, and his silver eyes narrowed to slits. “She’s what I’m talking about,” he mumbled to Blu, the witch who had not used a spell to enchant him, but her smart fashion sense, which was the surest way to his heart.
She flashed a genial smile as they both gave me the same assessing look, starting with my green Converse sneakers, moving to my jeans, and going on to the light green tee I had under my multicolored plaid shirt.
Oh, look, now there’s two of them.
Blu kept smiling as she hopped off the table. I liked her, mostly because since she’d come into our lives Kalen hadn’t bothered asking me to go to whatever designer was having a show that I didn’t give a damn about. Blu loved them. When we found antiquities that she could use, she was given a discount—but it came out of Kalen’s half because I hadn’t agreed to give her the pretty-fashionista price. She always bartered something for them. Usually she’d make herba terrae, the witches’ version of pot, and pseudo-magic protection amulets that did a fireworks presentation for show when the right magical word was said. Humans really loved both, and they were easy sells in the shop.
“So what weird game were you and your boyfriend playing, and why did it involve an interrogation room?” Kalen asked, ta
king his focus off Blu, who was now leaving. He waved at her as she ducked out the door. Again giving me a derisive once-over, he lifted his finger, and I glared at him.
“If you change anything I’m wearing, the pigtails come back to stay.”
He shuddered, affronted at the very thought of the hairstyle. That was probably why I used it as a threat so often.
“You and Gareth were playing your little games, and then he did . . .”
I took up roughly the same position Blu had held just moments before, but instead I crossed my legs as I explained everything that had happened over the past three days. Although I left out the intimate details about Gareth and me, I was sure Kalen had already inserted his version.
Although he feigned a lighthearted interest in my love life, Kalen couldn’t conceal the obvious concern he had for me. He was still dealing with the new knowledge that I was a Legacy and I could see the effort he was putting into fully comprehending it. This was one of those moments because he was reminded of what we could do and what Conner and his newly formed crew wanted to do. They were not only planning another Cleanse but recruiting others who were Legacy and the stronger version of them, Vertu, to help. And they weren’t above enlisting the help of other supernaturals who were willing to betray their own in an effort to gain favor with them and live in a world where few rivaled their power. I found it just as disturbing as Kalen did. High-level mages could do a small Cleanse if they used one of the magical objects Legacy had made along with pulling magic from another mage, witch, shapeshifter, and a fae—which they did by killing them.
The more I thought about it, the more it didn’t seem like such a bad idea to have the Trackers handle this situation. However, I still lived with the apprehension that they would be emboldened by the Supernatural Guild’s complicity and it would have devastating results.
“I agree with Gareth’s decision,” Kalen said softly after several minutes of contemplation of everything I’d told him. A reluctant resolve shrouded his features after the struggle for acceptance of such cruelty played across them. But at least there had been a struggle, moments of indecisiveness, consideration. It bothered me that Gareth hadn’t displayed any of that.
“I’m sure Conner was very persuasive, but the fact that those following him could be swayed into doing it says a great deal about where their loyalties lie,” Kalen continued, “They are dangerous and can’t be trusted.” I started to speak, but he raised his hand to stop me. “Levy, I wish there was a perfect answer that didn’t end with violence, but Gareth’s job is to protect the majority. The Legacy are a threat.”
“I’m not a threat.”
“You’re not. And there are others that aren’t and I’m sure he will stop the Trackers if they go after those. The ones that were captured weren’t innocent, Levy. You said some of the SG died trying to capture them—trying to stop them from doing something heinous. Conner and the others need to be held accountable for those deaths and their crimes.”
Kalen was echoing much of what Gareth had said and I was just as reluctant to hear it from him, but somehow it didn’t seem so bad now. At the end of the day, the SG, Gareth, the Magic Council, and Harrah had an agenda—Kalen didn’t. His only goal was to keep himself and his friends safe.
“If by chance he did stop the Trackers from executing the Legacy they currently hold captive, are you sure you’d be safe from them? Are you sure they don’t consider you an enemy, one who betrayed her own kind and the cause? Have you considered that he’s doing it to keep you safe as well?”
His words were a reminder of how fear made people illogical—this time, I was the one suffering from it. Conner had dropped me in the middle of no-man’s-land and left me to fend off a supernatural freak animal. He hadn’t expected me to survive, and when I did, he’d been willing to take my life himself. His devotees followed him blindly; one command from him and they would have done the same.
Kalen was right. Gareth was right. Humility was too bitter for my palate.
Instead of going home after work, I ended up in the pit cave I’d found years ago, where I’d performed magic, hidden from everyone. Well, I should have been, but both Lucas, the vampire Master of the city, and Gareth had found it. Before I did anything, I waited. I was out of the closet, exposed to the Supernatural Guild, but I still didn’t feel comfortable performing magic in the open. I’d retreated to the cave when my curiosity had gotten the best of me. Were Conner’s followers dead? It had been several days now. They probably were, but I needed confirmation.
Taking a knife out of the bag I kept it in, I sliced the blade over my hand. Wincing at the pain as blood welled and dripped on the dirt, I recited the locating spell. I watched as my blood curdled around the rocks, brightened, and spread over the area. Magic blanketed the dirt, forming a small map that represented almost one hundred miles and would reveal the location of any magic similar to mine. I used to employ this spell to make sure I wasn’t near another Legacy, which would have made it easier for us to be detected. I tamped down the raw, cold feeling of being a coward for having done so. I looked at the map: clear, empty of any small dots except a few on the far edges, away from me, that couldn’t be Conner and his sympathizers. I stared at the blank empty spaces where there should have been clustered dots representing them and then averted my attention to the pale lines that divided up the city. Despite the thrum of magic that came off the map, there was a cold emptiness of nothing being present. The heaviness of what that meant was hard to shrug off no matter how I tried. There weren’t any Legacy near me. I didn’t think about Conner and his acolytes’ agenda. That should have been at the forefront of my mind. It should have consumed my thoughts and drowned out everything—but it didn’t. I thought about the fact that the very people who’d killed my parents had been allowed to kill others. That’s what the empty map meant to me.
It took an hour-long drive for me to find some acceptance of the situation. Conner was dead, and so were the others. It was the consequence of the choices they’d made. Period. It was over, and I decided I wasn’t going to fixate on it anymore.
I drove up to my building and saw the Tesla, now scratch free, parked behind Savannah’s car. I debated whether to keep driving. Tenacity and pure stubbornness wouldn’t allow me to do that, so I parked my own car and went to my apartment. Casually strolling in, I found Gareth in the kitchen with Savannah. He was cutting up tomatoes, and she was checking on the food in the oven.
“I wasn’t expecting a guest tonight,” I said, my tone cool and even. Gareth turned around, a smile slowly spreading over his lips, defiant and amused. “You don’t have company, Savannah does. I thought you were busy?”
“I am.”
The grin broadened. Smug. A subtle challenge. “Well, then pretend I’m not here.”
As if I could. His all-consuming and overpowering presence was hard to ignore, and I didn’t doubt for one minute that he knew it.
“Gareth called to see how things were going with the Shapeshifter Council since I am now allied with them.” She gave me a congenial smile. She was always kind and welcoming, but she’d been firmly on Team Gareth from the very beginning. Her adoration had earned her a position as president of his fanclub.
“And he brought this.” She picked up a bottle of wine from the table, turned the label to me, and flashed another smile. I returned it, widening my eyes in pseudo excitement, mirroring her enthusiasm, wishing I knew what I was faking excitement about. Savannah was the wine connoisseur, one of the few indulgences she considered worth the empty calories. That was her vice, wine and hot zombies, or rather vampires.
Gareth kept drawing my attention. The smirk wavered a little before he spoke. “How was your day?”
I shrugged. “Another day, another threat from a conceited tyrant threatening to arrest me when I dared to not do what he wanted.”
“Did he ask nicely?” Once again I was treated to the little kink in his lips. The blue eyes sparkled. When I glared at him, his smile widened.<
br />
Savannah’s narrowed gaze bounced between the two of us, but she remained silent. From her knowing look, I thought she had figured out that Gareth had done something more than be bossy and domineering. But I wasn’t sure if she regretted inviting him over. I doubted she would have been able to extend her trademark kindness if she’d known before the invitation. Who was I kidding—this was Savannah. She probably would have still extended it, but it would have been accompanied by a thorough haranguing. When I excused myself to go to my room they both looked concerned.
Reading while lying on my bed was enough of a distraction. Once I’d decided that Saturday I’d look for the other Legacy who’d shown up on the outskirts of the map, my mind cleared and escape into my book’s world of espionage was easy.
Staying in that world wasn’t quite so effortless. Every once in a while, my thoughts slipped to trying to figure out what I’d do once I found the mapped Legacy. I needed to talk with the Magic Council, and it would benefit me if I learned to play nice with Gareth. His position as head of the Supernatural Guild and a member of the Magic Council made him an asset. A complicated, arrogant, sexy asset, but an asset nonetheless.
I returned to my book, ready to be immersed in a life that made mine pale in comparison when there weren’t many things that could do that. I considered ignoring the light knock on the door, but after the second one I invited the person in.
“Peace offering,” Gareth said, bringing in a plate and a glass of wine.
Sitting up, I looked at the plate. Only Savannah would think it was okay to serve a shapeshifter—a lion—eggplant parmesan and a salad. I grinned. He had the very look I’d expect to see on his face.
“Are you sacrificing your meal for me?” I teased.
“No, we finished eating earlier. This is yours.” After I took the plate from him and started eating, he took a seat on the chair in the corner.
Renegade Magic (Legacy Series Book 3) Page 2
