“We’re both here, nothing is going to happen.”
She nodded, stood and left out the room, and returned with the blade I’d given her weeks before the first time we took her to track Conner. She held it like someone with experience; unfortunately, I’d seen her use it when we’d practiced. At least she looked formidable, and that might be enough. At first sight, anyone who came through the door would have taken her for a knife-wielding slayer who was going to dice them up into bite-sized pieces. They wouldn’t suspect that she would probably lose it the moment they started to fight.
Once the first four uneventful hours had passed, I expected Gareth to leave, but he didn’t. By ten o’clock that night nothing had happened and we all went to bed. Sleep came easier than I’d expected with Gareth next to me. When his arms wrapped around me, I wished we were skin to skin, but remaining clothed probably was more practical in the event someone did try to break in. It wasn’t until magic—strong magic—struck against my ward that I woke with a startle. I grabbed the twins and ran to the front of the house. The ward was stronger than I would have typically used, but if they were coming to kill me, they weren’t going to send just one weak mage. They would send their best, and they did. Each time magic battered against the ward, I could feel it as though it was physically pounding into me. Our running to the front door had woken Savannah up and she was now standing next to me, holding the blade.
“Savannah, please go back in your room,” I urged.
She glared at me. “I will do no such thing. We are in this together,” she barked, baring her teeth. Damn, she looks menacing.
“Fine, play lookout from your room. Make sure no one is coming through the back,” I suggested.
Cutting her eyes at me, she gave me an “are you kidding me” look.
The intruders kept working on the lock, pushing more magic into it, and I was afraid to look out of the window to see how many there were.
“Let the ward down,” Gareth instructed me. He changed his stance, moving into a defensive position.
“Ready?”
He nodded. I dropped the ward, the door blasted open, and Gareth lunged forward. He shed his human form like it was a coat, and tawny fur covered his body in place of his tanned skin. Massive claws stretched from his flexed fingers, and the cocky smile that he usually wore was replaced by a powerful jaw and sharp canines. The assailant closest to the door didn’t stand a chance as the massive cave lion careened into him, knocking him to the ground. One strike against the neck, and blood spurted as the man slumped to the ground. I could hear sirens, and I hoped it was the SG and not the human police. I didn’t remember seeing any SG cars having sirens, which made sense as they tended to prefer discretion when apprehending people. Their cars usually only had a small unobtrusive emblem on them.
Magic hit me, sending me stumbling back. Another blast struck Savannah, and she flew back into the wall, hard. I heard the sound of crumbling plaster but I couldn’t give them the advantage of being distracted by looking. Her pained sounds served as an indicator she was alive, but I wasn’t sure how badly she was injured. A wave of magic came off me, an aggregate of it, sending three men back onto the lawn. I ran out of the house, sai gripped firmly in hand, ready to inflict pain and damage. The battering I’d given myself from not feeling guilty about killing the other Trackers was long gone. I had every intention of killing these as well. The fewer of them left trying to kill my kind, the better things were going to be. I hit them with another jolt of magic. One gritted his teeth, but refused to scream out in pain. The others wailed loudly. The police would soon arrive, and the neighbors were out on their lawns watching the magical show and the savage monster lion mowing down and mauling a supernatural. They were gawking at me as I hurled magic at another magic wielder. Concentrating on the mage in front of me whose fingers were encircled by vibrant colors, I waited, preparing to put up a shield to protect myself from whatever he was about to do. Then I felt the magic of someone in my head, crowding my thoughts, making an attempt to manipulate my mind, something that I’d done to other Trackers who had come for me. They pushed, I blocked. They pushed even harder, and I looked around for the fae who was hidden, skulking in the darkness. Gareth, still in his animal form, blood matted in his fur and around his mouth, followed my gaze into the darkness. He raised his head and took a whiff of the air. He started out slowly walking, breathing in the scent, and then he whipped around and went in the other direction. I heard the thud of someone crashing to the ground and a primal roar before someone cried out. It was only a second before the sound was cut off. A shot rang through the air. I felt the searing pain as it entered my body. My senses were still sharp but my magic dulled. I called for it. Nothing but the curdling, painful feeling of magic being restricted. I clawed at the dart and jerked it out of my skin. It was the same type used by the SG to subdue Conner and his crew. They’d tested it on me prior to that. It restricted our magic for six minutes. A potent chemical that was mostly a large dose of iridium pumped into us to decrease our magic.
Sai in hand, I looked in the direction the shot had come from. Just a few feet away stood the unfriendly man who’d interrogated me, aiming the weapon at me again. At least it wasn’t a gun. I guess he wanted the satisfaction of killing me the way the Trackers seemed to enjoy: a blade through us as they watched our life drain out. A cruel gratification from wielding the blade that ultimately took a life. Our eyes locked, and I tried to count down the minutes until I had use of my magic. A hard ball hit me in the back—magic hurled by the mage I’d been dealing with earlier. He didn’t seem to have the same desire for a blade to end my life. He seemed content to do it with the very thing he hated about me—magic. My body ached as though someone had landed a blow with a heavy stone. My bones groaned at the pain, and my head was pounding from the fae’s mind invasion. I rolled on the ground, avoiding another ball of magic. They kept coming rapid fire until the mage was fatigued enough that he needed to stop. I jumped to my feet, sai gripped tightly, ready to engage, when he froze. I heard it, but not soon enough- the cocking of a gun. Several policemen had surrounded us. One of the officers threw the treacherous SG agent facedown on the ground, yanking his arms behind his back before cuffing him.
Another police officer started to approach me, but stopped when several SG SUVs pulled up. A shifter and another high-level mage jumped out. There was no denying he was a strong mage—the magic that wafted off him was stifling.
“We have this,” the shifter said. His voice was rough and the shifter ring pulsed in his eyes as he made his territorial claim. His predaceous nature commanded the area, but the human police held.
“This is ours,” the police officer said in a gruff voice.
“We can handle this,” Gareth said, coming from around the corner. He walked slower than he usually did, but still maintained the grace of a shifter. They looked at him, but I wasn’t sure if it was because they recognized him or because he was naked and his face and body were covered in blood.
Gareth repeated himself, and they hesitated, but eventually dropped their guns. As they started to back away, another car drove up and Harrah quickly got out. As usual, she looked innocuous dressed is a simple pair of slacks and a flattering willow print shirt. As she approached the officer, her smile was as dainty and sweet as her mannerisms. Just like all the citizens in the city, the officers seemed enchanted and disarmed by her. I looked at the doorway of the apartment where Savannah stood, her eyes narrowed on Harrah, watching her intently. She’d earned the right to be cautiously skeptical of the fae when she’d watched her walk into a club after an incident occurred and effortlessly manipulate memories.
Harrah was speaking with the police, shaking their hands, holding contact, and for a moment each officer had a glazed look on their face. They looked back at the scene, brows furrowed as if they didn’t know why they were there. After they left, she scanned the area, smiling at the neighbors who hadn’t had the good sense to duck into their apartments. I suspec
ted that they all would get a visit from either her or another SG agent, because two more cars had pulled up since she had arrived.
I questioned whether it was important to preserve the alliance with humans, given all the horrible things that needed to be done to maintain it. Part of me wanted us to take off the masks and expose ourselves for what we were, warts and all. Humans had their flaws as well. Murder, theft, manipulation, crimes against humanity and decency were constantly done, yet humans didn’t go through extremes to guard us against them. If they were trying to minimize our knowledge of such things, someone wasn’t very good at their job.
When Harrah approached me, Savannah slipped into the house.
“No one came to the safe house,” she informed Gareth, who was striding toward her. He was dressed and some of the blood was gone, but there was so much that just wiping it away wasn’t going to be enough. The only way he was going to remove that amount of blood was in a shower.
As she kept speaking with him her voice became lower and lower and it was more than obvious that she didn’t want me there. She welcomed me excusing myself.
CHAPTER 5
Things were too quiet. Four days had passed since the Trackers’ attack at the apartment, and I expected something—another shattered ward; a visit from Evelyn, Conner’s head minion; or even an audience with Conner himself. Nor had the Trackers attacked again. I suspected that between the carnage during Conner’s escape and what had happened after they attacked me, their numbers were dwindling. The anticipation of retaliation was making me jumpy and irritable.
“You’re in a mood,” Savannah said from the passenger side of the car.
“Not a mood, just concerned.”
“About?”
“Conner. He should have made an appearance by now to yammer on about his plans for world domination.”
“People like him don’t respond well to being dominated, and make no mistake, he was. You kicked his ass.”
“I just managed not to die; I’m not sure if I kicked his ass.” And that was the crux of the matter: I hadn’t died. I’d had help from Gareth and the SG, which made me apprehensive about the possibility of facing him alone. The look on his face when he’d been cuffed was anger, melded with a hint of humiliation.
“You kicked it thoroughly and he knows it,” she said confidently. “Maybe he decided against it and is just going to scuttle away and live his days in his own little heaven and not have to deal with the likes of us. He can use his magic to make a glorious world. If I were him, that’s pretty much all I would do. Speaking of that, we need you to work on your magical construction skills.”
“Of all the things I need to learn, that’s not one of them.”
“Oh come on, you can spruce up the place a little,” she teased as I pulled into a parking space on Coven Row where most of the witches had their stores. Savannah didn’t possess magic of her own as an ignesco, a magic enhancer, but she was overzealous about her newly discovered power and had proclaimed herself my assistant. She seemingly hadn’t been advancing quickly enough with on-the-job training alone and was on the hunt for more education. We’d gone through all the books that Blu had loaned us as well as some that Lucas, the Master of the city, had been able to get his hands on. I knew, however, that our day trip was less about Savannah’s avid interest in her newfound ability and more about getting my mind off of things.
We browsed a number of shops but managed to bypass the herba terrae stores that had become major destinations for many people in the city. It was legal to imbibe cannabis after the witches added a few other herbs, tannins, and salts; an invocation over the concoction; and an authoritative-sounding Latin name. Most of these places were set up like hookah bars or nice restaurants where the entertainment consisted of magic. These acts were nothing more than cruise ship tricks for the entertainment of customers in a herba terrae state of bliss who had spent a fortune on the witch weed and the food. The witches could probably make more money if they just served donuts, Cheetos, and Doritos. They were true businesspeople, however, and would never consider serving such things. They even considered themselves too classy to name the places something like Witch’s Pot Spot—a suggestion that I’d made on more than one occasion to various restaurants. I thought it had a special ring to it, as opposed to the cutesy names they’d chosen, like Witch’s Brew and Shadow.
I wasn’t sure if it was my increasingly sullen mood, but Savannah seemed to feel the need to placate me somehow. “It’s okay to be anxious about Conner’s absence, but don’t let it consume you and make your miserable.” Her voice was soft and measured as she wrapped her hand around my arm and guided me into an ice-cream parlor. I stopped at the entrance and looked at her suspiciously. I wondered if it was the munchies-inducing aura of the herba terrae boites as well as my cloud of anxiety driving her.
“Are you dying?”
She rolled her eyes. “Just because I don’t want to completely fill my body with fat and toxins doesn’t mean I can’t occasionally enjoy it. And I just don’t think a brownie is an acceptable breakfast.”
“I had milk with it, and it was chock-full of nuts. Eggs, milk, nuts, cocoa—it’s a superfood,” I said.
She dismissed me with a look of derision and ordered a small bowl of vanilla ice cream.
What’s the point?
We sat and finished our ice cream as she discussed the plans she had with Lucas that night. Focusing on her as she talked about him was a mediocre distraction: you’d think the experience of dating the Master of the city, who owned two very popular clubs, would be more eventful.
After we’d window-shopped our way down more of Coven Row, Savannah became more absorbed in her hunt for materials to develop and enhance her talent. We’d spent nearly an hour in one shop, and she’d filled her handcart with magic accoutrements that would be useless to her. The store’s owner had obviously taken pains to make the store feel magical. The burgundy walls of the store had sigils scrolled over them. I studied them but was convinced that they were nothing more than decoration. The floor space was crowded with rows of books, stones, salts, and herbs. Heavy, dark-colored drapes dimmed the store enough that it seemed gothic and eerie with a hint of an ethereal appeal. Candles complemented the mood, and the air was blanketed with the scent of sandalwood incense. The overall effect made it hard to resist being enchanted by the idea that a person might have some dormant magical ability, and they just needed the right book, stone, herbs, or talisman to awaken it.
We left the store with enough paraphernalia to fill two bags, which warranted a stop by the car to store it so we could continue shopping. A few feet from the car, I sensed it before I saw it. I shoved Savannah out of the way just as Conner’s little pet attacked. It was a massive creature with the heads of the three animals it had been created from. It possessed daggerlike teeth; the quick, sinewy movements of a feline; and the powerful build of a wolf. It was a menacing creature and had been hard to defeat the first time I’d encountered it. The serpent head was the wild card. It had a lot more movement than it should have, seeing that it was affixed to a body. Its tongue darted out, tasting the air. Then it struck out, hitting Savannah, who hadn’t gained enough distance from it. It recoiled, ready to strike her again. A strong explosion of my magic sent the creature back several feet, not nearly as far as I wanted. I sent another strong shot of magic in its direction, but the magic rebounded right back with as much force as I’d pushed it outward. I lunged, but couldn’t avoid it. A strong thrum slammed into me, and I crashed to the ground.
“Get to the car!” I yelled at Savannah, who seemed shaken but uninjured. “Now!” I commanded when she hesitated. The serpent darted in her direction, nudging her back and keeping her away from me. When I rolled to my feet, I found I wasn’t too far from the car. I ran to it, grabbed the twins, and scanned the area. Conner. I knew he’d have to be there. Wherever his pet was, he wasn’t too far away.
For a moment I inhaled the air, knowing I wouldn’t be able to sense Con
ner’s magic or feel the direction it was coming from as long as the beast in front of me emanated its own brand of odd, overpowering magic. Savannah had come to her feet, slowly backing away from the creature. I focused on the serpent head, whose movements were the most erratic and independent of the body; I knew from experience it was poisonous. I charged the creature, and when it lurched at me, mouth open, I dodged its fangs. Its head whipped back and hit me, throwing me back. Then claws raked across my leg. Pain surged through me as crimson stained my pants. The serpent was snapping its head forward, trying to get me with its fangs. I blocked them with the moto of the sai. I rolled to my knees and plunged one of the sai deep into its side. I had to tug hard to dislodge it. The wolf head howled. Blood spurted. The creature didn’t stop moving. It wasn’t trying to get away from me, but closer to Savannah. It whipped its serpent head, stretching farther with each movement, trying to clear the distance to get to her. I ignored the crowd that had started to form. There weren’t enough lies, enough manipulation of the truth, to conceal this story. Harrah would have to deal with it.
The creature moved faster and more agilely than it should have with the injuries it had sustained. I needed to disable the serpent and hope that if I killed one part of the body the rest would die. But would Conner create a creepy freak creature that could be subdued so easily? I considered trying to roll under the animal, but I didn’t want to risk the snake’s venom. Timing it as best as I could, I jabbed both sai into it and pulled them out. Blood sprayed from the injury, and the creature retreated. I divided my attention between it and Savannah. Should I let it go?
Renegade Magic (Legacy Series Book 3) Page 5
