by Susan Conley
The woman was looking at the tattoo, grinning in pleasure.
By the goddess, she was a Warder. Edward’s Warder, although not his Mate, or at least if she was they hadn’t completed their mating or she’d be tied to his fate. More importantly, Smythe had not been responsible for his son, this woman was supposed to have been. Somehow, some why, Smythe had missed training this woman, and she’d gone rogue. His ego? His denial? Mona would never know.
The woman looked up at Mona again. Eyes now narrowed. “I know you, you’re the bitch who tried to prevent me from ridding the world of that mother and her baby. The child destined to have all the powers. Too bad you didn’t succeed. Now you’ll have to wait years for another to be born. You were too late for that, Miss Goody Two-Shoes.” She bared her teeth in a feral snarl. “You made me lose several good men, something I’ll not forgive.”
Mona didn’t look at Cart. Didn’t want to give away that they were sure they’d saved the child. Wasn’t even certain it was true anymore. When was the last time she’d heard anything?
The woman was muttering under her breath. Mona saw a spell being built up. How many of these tattoos did the woman have? Remembering her brother’s advice she stepped back and aimed her fist at the woman’s jaw, easy to do as the woman was looking away, putting her weight behind the hit and following through. Cart loosened his hold and the woman’s head snapped back before she was knocked out. He kept the woman upright, despite her lax body.
“Shit, that hurts!” Mona shook out her hand.
“Get the Swiss army knife out of my vest pocket.”
Mona’s eyes went wide.
“You can’t mean. . .” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence.
“I could kill her now.”
Mona saw the truth in his eyes—he’d do it if she said he should. But Mona couldn’t make the call. Wouldn’t make the call. Part and parcel of her being Warder, perhaps, but she didn’t think killing the woman, at this juncture at least, would solve anything.
He nodded, and she sensed his agreement. “You can use the knife to mar the tattoos and make them unusable and we’ll bring her back for Nic and Tania to judge. And we should start with that one.”
Dizzy with nausea at the idea of cutting the woman, Mona reached under the poncho and into his vest.
“Clean it first, I got most of our blood off, but there’s no reason to take chance on there still being some.”
Mona looked the compact knife over. The casing had a rough black texture and there were at least two blades. “Can’t I just use the smaller blade?”
Cart had the woman down on the ground and was wrapping her forearms together behind her back, being sure to keep her wrist clear.
“Yeah, might take longer, but sure.” He tore off a short piece of duct tape and placed it over their captive’s mouth. There was barely enough to tape her ankles together before he ran out of tape. Still kneeling, he looked up at her.
“I can’t do the work.” His voice was soft, calming, and Mona knew he wished he could. “I can be here, help you, but you know what the runes mean, how to nullify the spell, I don’t.”
Mona looked down at the knife in her hand, unable to fathom that she might use it on a person. “Will it be permanent? I mean, are we just going to do this and have it all go back?”
“You tell me. Can you change the spell? Rework the runes in a way she won’t easily be able to change it back?”
Kneeling next to him she looked over the tattoo, trying, trying not to think about cutting into this woman’s flesh.
“Moving the runes wouldn’t do anything. Flipping them, rearranging them, she’d just move them back. I could probably take a rune out.” Would she have to slice it out? Better to not think of it. “Which might collapse the whole thing or not, I’m not sure with the more permanent elements of this spell.”
Cart cupped her neck in one hand and brushed the tear she hadn’t realized she’d shed with the thumb of his other. The blood link was still strong; she felt his love and worry, his fierce protectiveness and his angst-ridden acceptance that there were some things he had to let Mona do.
“Is there a way for me to do this?” he asked anyway. “No, never mind. Look, do you remember when your brother cut Tania, then had to suck out the poison? Think if it that way. Having a spell with that evil an intent on her, it’s got to affect her in some way.”
Mona knew that to be the case. With all the spells their captive had embedded on her skin—and there were definitely more than the one on her wrist and collarbone—layers of evil were sinking in and permeating through her being. Mona placed a finger on the woman’s palm and tried to assess her magic beneath the layers of workings. Cart clasped her other hand, bringing their already healing scars into contact.
What she saw was very different than an elf’s or a Were’s abilities. Closer to what she’d seen on Kofi, the witch who had all her energies concentrated in her head. But unlike the witches, where magic only appeared that one place, and unlike those with elven blood, where the essence streamed like arteries throughout their body, her magic showed as if through a fine mesh, innumerable pinpricks at every single point on her body. Had Smythe looked like that? Mona didn’t think she’d ever thought to see how Smythe looked to her inner eye.
And the thread of evil was scattered through the microscopic dots via the ink in the tattoos. There was no way she’d ever get them all clear. Perhaps Tania, or Tania and Nic together, but she couldn’t do it.
“You don’t look like that,” Cart said. “You look like you have delicate swirls and curls of magic. When you look closely you realize each line is made up of many more, even finer lines, running next to each other to give the curves shape and depth. It’s quite pretty. Sexy even.”
Mona smiled at him, knowing she didn’t have to express her gratitude for what he’d told her, he’d feel it like she was feeling his joy. He leaned over and kissed her salt-laden cheek, for again she found herself weeping.
The woman twitched. Mona couldn’t delay any longer.
Folk.
Energy.
Death.
Mona wasn’t sure which rune to remove. Any pairing she’d leave—death with folk, energy with death, energy with folk—was still a potentially dangerous spell given they could all be manipulated to harm others.
She closed the knife and handed it back to Cart. “I need to try to take the whole spell off. Once I remove it we’ll need to jump away from here, immediately. Oh!” A stray thought popped into her head. She looked over the various spells and saw the thread she was looking for. Pulling on it, the spell that had changed the lizard came into view. Mona yanked, flipping the runes around until the creature was once again the right size. The ten inch reptile landed with plop by Cart.
Cart picked up the now comatose creature and put it inside his vest. “Any sign of the minotaur?”
She checked the lines that seemed most likely. “No. Hopefully Nic called him back.”
Cart nodded. “Can you do this standing up? That way if we have to leave in a hurry, we can.”
Mona shook her head. “I need to touch her. Unless you want to prop her up, I need to be down here.”
“Is there any economy of scale? I mean, if you’re taking off one spell is it just as easy to remove more at the same time?”
“No, I don’t want them getting entangled. It’s got to be one at a time. Ready?”
Cart reached down and grabbed her upper arm. Clearly he thought he might need to yank her along with him.
“Ready.”
Mona placed her hand above the working, concentrating on pulling the markings away. The wrist reddened as the first rune came free then blistered with the second. The marks repeated themselves on Mona’s palm, sending pain again shooting up her arm.
Cart’s hand tightened on her arm. He had to know the agony she was in.
By the goddess I can’t get sick!
“Breathe through your nose,” he said quietly.
&nbs
p; Mona followed his advice, thankful she was as the last sigils and rune came free. Now the skin was raw and openly wept with ooze and blood. She forced herself to look at the wrist and ignore her discomfort. Using her free hand she turned their captive’s forearm to make sure all the sigils and markings were done, difficult with the bindings.
A jerk, then a muffled scream. Their captive awoke, rolling onto her side and clamping her bound hands around Mona’s ankle. Mona fell back on her ass, breaking Cart’s hold. Mona instinctively clasped the other hand over the spell, keeping it in place.
Pain!
He slid his hands under her arms and pulled her away from the thrashing woman.
“Jump!” Mona screamed. She needed to get rid of this spell now.
The dark with its faint shushing of colors surrounded them. Mona shook her hands, freeing them of the magical residue.
Freeing her ankle of its additional weight was going to be more difficult. She grabbed Cart’s bicep before she slid out of his hands. Reaching down, she tried to pry off the fingers with no success.
Not much time. She didn’t want to bring this woman to wherever Cart was taking them.
She slammed her booted foot on the bound wrists, using her grip on Cart’s arm for balance. Then she kicked out, shoving the body away. Mona had to believe that the woman wouldn’t be in this in-between place for eternity. That she’d come out somewhere, some short distance in the future if what Mona suspected about what lingering in the non-space would do was correct.
But for now she was gone.
They stepped out onto a dock that jutted out into ice-laden waters. The same place they’d jumped to once before. Cart stumbled a step.
“I thought she was still latched onto you.” He looked around the dock as if she’d appear there.
“No, I got her off while we were jumping.” Mona looked around. They were by the coal plant, so not too far from home, but plenty far from New Jersey.
“You left her in the void?” Cart frowned. “I’m not sure that’ll hold her, eventually she’ll come back out.”
“When she does, we’ll need to be ready.”
“Good job, you two.”
They turned around to see the Puck in a yellow rain slicker and rain hat and holding a pipe leaning against a pylon. He grinned at them, clearly pleased he’d startled them.
“Hi, Warder,” he nodded at Mona. “And you too.” His hand flicked in dismissal at Cart.
Mona felt Cart still beside her. If they weren’t still linked together she might have missed it, but she knew his mind was racing even though she couldn’t get a grasp on what his thoughts were.
“You keep doing that.” His voice was flat, unemotional.
“Cart, he’s just trying to yank your chain by not greeting you.”
Cart shook his head. “No, that’s not it. The Puck, he’s said the truth the whole time and we’ve missed it.”
“Knew you’d catch it.” The Puck’s small, pointed teeth glinted in the afternoon sun.
“What are you talking about?” Mona looked back and forth between the two of them, but they were too caught up in a staring contest to notice her. She clenched her fist in annoyance, only to hiss in pain as her fingers dug into her healing skin.
Cart immediately reached out for her.
“Never mind this.” She waved her hands out of his range. “I want to know what all you are talking about!”
“I—” Cart hopped and jerked. “Cracked acorns, this is not a good time for you to wake up.”
He pulled the lizard out of his vest. “Here, you take it.”
The Puck was already holding out his hands. He inspected the creature’s toes and tongue before flicking it into oblivion with a wave of his hand and a sparkling of imps.
Mona was not distracted. “Care to fill me in on the big secret?”
Cart walked over and stood behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders and leaning forward so his mouth was by her ear.
“Have you ever noticed how casually the Puck greets you?” He squeezed her shoulders gently when she would have said something. “It’s never hello, or hey, it’s always. . .”
He trailed off and let her fill in the gap.
“High Warder.” Mona stared at the small man. He’d snuck it in so subtly she never thought anything of it.
Love, worry, menace all rolled off of Cart. “So, what does it mean?”
The Puck ignored his question and focused on Mona.
“You’re going to be fine.” He nodded as if reassuring her. “We just needed someone a little stronger. With less elves being born, and therefore less wards, more evil is leaking out and affecting Folk. And you,” his gaze shifted to Cart, “you better be damned good at the protecting business, because she’s going to need it once the people gathering evil figure out who she is.”
He popped out.
“Wait!” Mona’s yell echoed out over the harbor. “I hate when you do that!”
She turned in Cart’s arms.
“I can’t.” The thought of him turning evil, that there was more evil leaking into people, and he might be one made her toughen her resolve. “I can’t do this. I can’t let you get hurt.”
Cart just grinned. “Did I ever tell you about how I met Randall?”
“No. I assume this is relevant?” A cold wind came off the lake, making her shiver.
Cart wrapped his arm across her shoulders and started them walking to shore.
“When I was in training, the Warder in Tallahassee—Marina, you’ll like her—nick-named me ‘Teflon.’ It seemed that even when my teammates came back with bits of evil residue I’d have none, and she’d started to notice. Then she happened to mention this to the Puck.”
Oh, Mona could only imagine Randall’s reaction. He’d want to test Cart, see if it was true. “That can’t have been good.”
“It wasn’t. Most of the guys thought I just had shit luck for assignments. Some of the crap he threw at me. . .” He didn’t finish the thought. “I don’t know that I’ll ever forgive him, even though knowing how much evil is out there helped me keep perspective when even my superiors were flipping out.”
“And nothing ever stuck.”
“Nope. It’s not that spells don’t work on me, I’m not a Warder. But when I got hit and then the spell was removed, you couldn’t tell I’d been around evil.”
They walked a few paces in silence, off the pier and onto the ground. If evil couldn’t stick to him, and she was High Warder, what the hell was coming down the pike?
Cart pulled her in closer, his warmth spreading up her side. “I don’t think we should dwell on the future. It’s out there, waiting for us. I want to live in the now, and I want that to be with you.”
There were no barriers now. Cart would not, could not succumb to whatever evil they would face.
Joy, the rapid, giddy beating of her heart and the lightening of a load off her shoulders. This was joy.
She could be with Cart and he’d be safe.
Only then did she realize they’d stopped and she was standing there grinning like a fool. He hadn’t asked a question, but seemed to be awaiting an answer. No way was he going to get off that easily.
Although she could tell by his answering grin that he’d read her emotions already.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
Cart rolled his eyes then knelt down.
“I didn’t—” She stopped, Cart’s raised hand forestalling her saying anything else.
“If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.” He took her hand and held it against his heart. “Mona Lisa Kubrek—”
He stopped and Mona felt his desire, joy, welcome.
She put a finger from her free hand across his lips. “I know.”
He turned his head and nudged her finger aside. “I’m still going to say it anyway.”
Mona didn’t realize how delighted she’d be that he persevered.
“And that’s why,” he continued, clearly picking up on her
feelings. “There will be times when we don’t agree, when things will be tough, and I want you to always have this moment to look back on, to remember, no matter what, I love you with all my heart. You are etched onto my soul, stronger than the even the moon is entwined in my spirit. You will always be the center of my universe. Even when I may not show it or have time to be with you, you will be in my thoughts and in my deeds. I will protect you and ours with every fiber of my being. And I hope I will always be worthy of your love.”
Mona sniffed, tears of joy trailing down her face.
“I love you, Cart,” she said. “For everything you are, and that you will be, that we will yet become. My future would end today if you were not with me.”
Cart stood and wrapped his arms around her, holding her as tightly as she now held him. “I will always be with you, in spirit if not in body.”
“I know, I know, but there will be times you need to leave and I’ll worry. And there will be times I need to leave and you’ll worry. And, oh my goodness, what if we have kids? Who’ll stay around to protect them? There’s no way I’d ever leave them with—”
Cart cut her off with a kiss, deepening it and pressing her close until she wasn’t sure where she ended and he began. He broke it off, leaving them both breathless.
“Why are you nervous?” Cart asked, dipping in for a quick peck to show he wasn’t expecting an answer. “Could it be you’ve heard rumors about mating sex?”
Best. Sex. Ever. Mona nodded, then gasped as the level of lust and need radiating off of him spiked to the point she thought she’d melt right there.
“Room, we need to get a room.” He grabbed her hand and headed left this time, to the hotel.
Unlike that night not so long ago when they’d gone to the diner instead, Mona knew this was right. This was the time to start her life with Cart. Some bad shit was coming down the road, she had no doubt, but they’d face it together. Somehow she thought they’d have help, and not just from Tania and Nic—she had a feeling this was a time when many new skills would come to the fore to face new adversaries.
