Warlock Unbound: Heart's Desire, Book 4

by Dana Marie Bell

  “I’ll work on these now while you guys continue doing your thing.” Chris, already in work mode, was booting up his laptop with a distracted expression. Not even an explosion would move him from his computer now.

  “I see he’s hard at work already.” Gareth flopped next to him, the tablet PC clutched in his hands.

  Daniel nodded. “You know how he gets.” He tapped the tablet PC. “Any news?” Gareth had been working on looking for stories about crimes that matched what they’d seen in the videos.

  “Oh yeah. The cops definitely found our victim.” He held up the tablet PC, where a story was running about the body washed up on the shore of the Hamptons. Police, camera crews and gawkers were all over the scene.

  “Great.” That meant checking out the body was no longer an option. “Think we can scry on the murder itself?”

  Gareth clapped him on the shoulder. “Man, I like the way you think.”

  Zach grunted. “What are you two talking about?”

  Daniel made sure the images were saved before standing and stretching. They’d been at this almost four hours and the girls still weren’t back. He was starting to get worried. “Trying to scry on the murders, see what we can find out.” He checked his phone, but there were no texts or messages. He tapped something out, praying his mate responded before he had to march down there to check on her.

  “Let’s check for magical signatures as well. We might be able to narrow our search for the victims’ families if we can figure out if they were witch or wizard.” Zach grimaced. “Or even warlock.”

  “You think Arthur would kill his coven members?” Daniel wouldn’t put it past him.

  “It’s possible.”

  “I agree,” Daniel responded absently. Kerry had responded. Be there soon. Cleaning up. Feel much better, thx. He tucked his phone back in his pocket. “There has to be a reason he’s recruiting the young ones.”

  “Hell, most of them were barely legal. I don’t think any of them were above the age of seventeen.” Zach’s brow furrowed in anger. “I’m working on finding places we can send them, but there just isn’t a warlock school like we have, or the witches.”

  “And you may not be able to get them away from their families anyway.” Gareth rubbed his chin. “We’ll think of something, don’t worry. They won’t be abandoned.”

  “Good.” Zach took a deep breath, his expression easing. “All right. Let’s see what we can find out by scrying on the body, hmm?”

  “How do you want to do this?” They knew Zach could do a ritual and get a vision, if the Goddess wanted him to have one. The rest of them had to do it using different methods.

  “Mirror scrying, water scrying, crystal ball?” Gareth shrugged. “Pick your poison.”

  “Mirror. We use one large enough, we’ll all be able to see.” Daniel glanced around Gareth’s living room. “Does your mate have a large mirror?”

  “Not a moveable one.” Gareth stared at the windows. “However…”

  “The image won’t be remotely clear if we use those. Too much interference from the view.” Zach tilted his head. “But I don’t see why the television wouldn’t work.”

  Daniel stared at his kooky brother. “Let me guess. We turn it to a fuzzy channel, then wait to see if someone talks to us from the other side?”

  Gareth’s face went blank. “Daaadddy,” he sang in a high-pitched voice.

  Daniel leaned close to Gareth. “If some creepy little girl starts to crawl out of the TV I say we shove Zach at her and run for it.”

  “Assholes.” Zach turned on his heel and headed for the television. “Look. When it’s off, it’s just like a big, black mirror.” He waved at his dim reflection. “I think we can use this.”

  Daniel squinted at the TV, then reluctantly nodded. “I can’t think of anything better.”

  Gareth sighed. “I’ll make the popcorn.”

  Zach grabbed a pillow off the sofa and threw it at Gareth. “We need to purify it first.”

  “Because god knows how much porn Gareth has been watching on that thing.” Daniel laughed when Gareth growled. “We can’t bathe it in salt water, so I’ll get the smudging stuff from Gareth’s workroom.”

  “We can place crystals on it, maybe amp up the feed.” Gareth followed Daniel as Zach began rearranging some of the furniture, like pushing back the sofa and the coffee table. They couldn’t cast a pure circle, not with the TV bolted to the wall. They’d have to make do to ensure they were safe.

  Once in the workroom, Gareth began rummaging through the cabinet that held his gemstones. “Golden beryl, check.” He placed a round, polished sphere of golden yellow on his desk. “Black jasper, check.” He set out a black, shining disk next to the golden sphere. “Malachite, water opal, selenite, check.” A green stone with lighter green striations, a clear stone that picked up the light and refracted it and a milky white, polished sphere joined the other stones on the table. “Last, angel hair quartz.” A clear sphere with tiny strands of gold, or “angel hair”, was the last stone Gareth picked. All were designed to enhance scrying or to protect the user during scrying attempts.

  Daniel grabbed the turkey feather, the bowl of soapstone and the bundle of sage. “Anything else you can think of?”

  Gareth carefully gathered the stones together into a black velvet pouch. “We still need scrying incense. Grab the rosemary and the bay laurel. That should work.”

  “And candles.” Daniel grabbed the white and gold candles. The white was for protection, while the gold was for clearer visions.

  “Get some blue ones as well.”

  Blue, for water as well as meditation. “Got it.”

  They made their way back down to see that Zach had set up a small console table for an altar right in front of the television. He’d put a black cloth over it, and had placed an athame and some candle holders on the table. “Ready?”

  Daniel put down his stuff and left the candles for Zach to arrange. He lit the sage bundle and began smudging the area.

  “Lord and Lady, hear my plea.

  Cleanse this space of negativity.

  By the law of three times three,

  As I will so mote it be.”

  Daniel repeated the rhyme nine times as he walked the room, cleansing the space and especially the television. When he was done he carefully ground out the smudge stick in the soapstone bowl, placing both on the console table.

  Zach had set the three candles in a triangular pattern, with the point being the gold candle. Gareth had put the gems around the television, with the two spheres placed in the top corners of the console table. The incense was placed in the middle of the triangle of candles.

  “Cast the circle.” Zach’s tone was serene, his power glowing around him.

  Daniel dimmed the lights in the room until they could just see, then stepped next to Zach as Gareth, holding the athame, cast the three circles. White, blue and black glowed softly around them when he was done, protecting them from outside influences. It wasn’t as powerful as if Zach had cast it, but by unconscious consent they were saving the Own for the actual scrying spell.

  When Gareth was done Daniel stepped forward and called the quarters. Fire, his strongest element, leapt at his call, almost singeing his eyebrows. He smiled quietly and finished, taking his place near Zach, but behind him and to his right, where the white candle was. Gareth had taken position behind Zach and to his left, just as the candles had been arranged.

  Zach lit each candle, chanting as he did so, starting with the blue one.

  “Candle blue, blazing fire,

  Give to me what I require.

  Aid me now to meditate

  Upon the truth I’d excavate.

  Blazing fire, candle blue,

  Grant me sight that is true.”

  Zach lit the white candle.

  “Candle white, blaz
ing fire,

  Give to me what I require.

  Grant to me your protection,

  And guard us from evil’s detection.

  Blazing fire, candle white,

  Grant me your defensive light.”

  Last, at the head of the pyramid, he lit the gold candle.

  “Candle gold, blazing fire,

  Give to me what I require.

  I call upon my second sight,

  To help me make things right.

  Blazing fire, candle gold,

  The victim’s past I will behold.”

  Zach took a match and lit the cinnamon incense.

  “Goddess of the darkened moon,

  With the past I must commune.

  Murder foul to evil sway

  Lost to us is evil’s prey.

  Justice swift on evil’s heel

  To me their deaths now reveal.

  Souls that cry for justice fair

  Place your deaths within my care.

  Mirror darkened, show me all

  Past events I now do call.”

  The light of the candles flickered in the television, aided by Zach’s glow. The two spheres also began to glow as images appeared within them. Those images were projected onto the television.

  Daniel watched in horror as a woman was dragged screaming and kicking to a familiar dark altar. It was the same woman whose picture he’d chosen first, the one who’d been found on the beach in the Hamptons. She was forcibly strapped to the dark altar, tears streaming down her face as she begged for her life.

  Arthur appeared, surrounded by hooded figures. He spoke in a dark, guttural language, his followers intoning some sort of “amen” after each of his pauses in speech. In his hand was the dagger Zach had noticed earlier.

  When he got to the altar, he spoke again, his voice rising and falling as he began to make cuts in the woman’s skin. Some were shallow and long, some were deep enough to reveal muscle and fat. Gareth was growling by the fifth cut, and Zach, concentrating on keeping the image still, was glowing so brightly Daniel couldn’t even look at him. He almost obscured the view of the television. “Zach. Take it to forty watts, bro. I can’t see the screen anymore.”

  Zach’s glow dimmed, but the growls grew in strength as the Own joined Gareth in voicing his rage. Daniel was biting his tongue not to join in. His wolf was too close to the surface. If he changed now, he’d try and charge out of the hotel and hunt the fucker down without backup. That would only lead to his death.

  His wolf wasn’t so sure. It wanted to do to Arthur what Arthur was doing to that woman, but with teeth and claws and a lot quicker. It wanted to rip Arthur’s throat out for what he’d done, not only to these women but to Kerry as well.

  Arthur spoke one last time, the knife resting against the woman’s inner thigh. “Oh, fuck,” Daniel whispered. “That’s why there was no blood in her. It wasn’t the fucking ocean.” Arthur made the cut. The blood flowing from the woman’s femoral artery was bright red and flowing quickly. With this added to the other injuries, the woman faded fast, her eyes closing, her chest stuttering as she took her last breath. Her life ended on a sigh.

  Arthur shoved the woman off the altar like a piece of trash, dipping the tip of the dagger in her life’s blood. The dagger glowed a sickly green, the light flowing up the dagger and Arthur’s arm until it reached his chest. The glow centered on Arthur’s heart as he threw back his head and cried out. His expression was one of ecstasy, as if he’d had the best orgasm of his life.

  Arthur’s head lowered as the energy tapered off, his expression sated. “Throw her in the ocean. Make sure she’s weighted down well.”

  “Yes, sire.” One of the black-robed people spoke, his voice deep. “It shall be done.”

  Arthur nodded once and led the way from the altar, his followers right behind him.

  Daniel continued to watch as the body was picked up and placed back on the altar. Chains were wrapped around her, an anchor bound to her feet. She wasn’t meant to be found. “He’s making a garden of death.”

  Zach nodded as the image faded. “I noticed something.”

  “What?” Zach’s visions were probably brighter, clearer than Daniel’s, as he’d been the one to cast the spell.

  “There was a purple aura around her. Barely visible, but there. She was a wizard for certain.”

  Damn. Daniel had hoped it would be otherwise, but there it was. Proof positive that Arthur was killing magics and absorbing their powers, but they had no idea why.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Daniel was pacing in Gareth’s apartment when she showed up with the girls. He only did that when he was worried or upset, and that wouldn’t do at all. “Daniel? What’s wrong?”

  Daniel faced her, his expression grim. “The women Arthur’s killing are wizards.”

  “He’s gathering power, but we don’t know yet what for.” Gareth walked forward until he was holding Gen. “Until we do, you need to—”

  “Stay safe,” all four women echoed.

  They laughed. The men, not so much. But at least that grim expression was gone from Daniel’s face. He held out his arms. “C’mere, you.”

  Kerry walked into them. She had the feeling he needed the comfort of holding her. “That bad?”

  “Yeah.” He shuddered in her arms. “Can we talk about something else?”

  “Mm-hm. I’m good to go, all healed up.” She nipped his chin. “Guess what that means?”

  “You’re going to be a full-fledged warlock?” He was smiling, looking so proud she hated to burst his bubble.

  “Wild monkey sex.” She said it with as straight a face as she could, hoping he’d laugh.

  Instead, he glanced toward Gareth’s workroom, where the Beckett emerald ring sat, still untouched. Why it wasn’t on her finger yet was a mystery, but she still didn’t know a lot about spell casting. That was going to change as she took more lessons with Genevieve.

  “I think I can agree with that.” He began steering her toward Gareth’s workroom. “Get out, guys. We’re having wild monkey sex on Gareth’s table.”

  Gareth blinked. “Well. Shit.”

  Gen tugged on his shirt. “We could go upstairs and have our own wild monkey sex.”

  “See ya!” Gareth was racing up the stairs, tugging a giggling Gen behind him.

  “We’re outie.” Zach and Jo were a little more sedate about it, but Zach’s hand was on his mate’s rear and she wasn’t trying to swat it away.

  “Us too.” Chris put his arm around Lana’s waist. “Don’t forget, Daniel. You both have to touch the ring at the same time.”

  “I remember.” Daniel opened the door to the workroom and gently pushed her inside. “I’m getting naked now.”

  The slam of Gareth’s front door was the last thing she heard before Daniel took her lips in a wild kiss. “Are you ready for this?”

  “Fuck yes.” She grabbed his shirt and tugged him to the table. She stuck her hand out over the emerald ring, and for a moment she felt, actually felt the spell he’d woven into it. It was filled with a desperate longing for her that nearly brought tears to her eyes. “On three. One…”

  “Two.” He placed his hand on hers, entangling their fingers together.

  “Three.” She pushed down, touching the Beckett family ring.

  Warmth flowed up her arm, twining around them both like a sleek silken rope, binding them together. She could feel the spell settle inside herself, heating her skin, drawing her even closer to him. The urgency to touch, taste and feel every inch of his body swamped her. Her knees buckled and she would have fallen if not for Daniel’s strong arms around her.

  “Holy crap, that’s powerful.” She glanced up at him, sucking in a breath when she saw how dilated his pupils were. “Daniel?”

  Her eyes went wide as his lips slammed d
own across hers. The kiss was savagely hungry, devouring every inch of her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to give as good as she got, but Daniel was far stronger than she was. When he’d said they were going to fuck on Gareth’s workroom table, he’d meant it. Neither of them could move away from the other long enough to make it back to Daniel’s apartment.

  He was going to have her, right here, right now.

  He lifted her up until her ass rested on the edge of the work table. He stepped between her spread legs and buried his hand in her hair, holding her still as he continued to consume her. Her nails dug into his thick shoulders. She reveled in the strength she found there. The man was rock hard all over.

  When he began to caress her breasts she wanted to curse whoever had invented clothing. Nothing should stand between her skin and his. She began tearing at his shirt, desperate for sleek muscles and warm skin under her palms.

  “Yes.” His shirt finally slid off his shoulders. He shivered, his hands still clenched in her hair. “I need you.”

  “Ditto.”

  That broke some of the erotic spell that had been wrapped around them. “Ditto?” His eyes were amber, his wolf’s eyes, but the amusement was all Daniel.

  “Get the fuck out of your clothes, Beckett.”

  He chuckled while she struggled with his zipper.

  Kerry grabbed his crotch and lightly squeezed. “Now.”

  His clothing hit the floor so fast she didn’t think any of it was salvageable. He had to have ripped it to shreds to get it off that quickly.

  But he was surprisingly gentle when he cupped her cheek. His hand was trembling so violently she was afraid for a moment that Daniel was upset. “I need you. I have always needed you.”

  She smiled sweetly, hoping he saw that she needed him just as desperately. “Ditto.” Kerry began removing her own clothes, moving much slower than Daniel had. She wanted to give him a little show after his confession. The shirt slipped over her head, his groan at the sight of her red bra making her ache. Her shoes went next. She removed them carefully, not wanting them to fall on Daniel’s feet and ruin the mood.

  Daniel wasn’t staying still. He reached for her bra, unclasping it as she took off her second shoe. The bra slid down her arms, revealing her hard nipples to his predatory gaze. She leaned back and propped herself up on the table, pushing her breasts up. The low growls as he slid her panties down her legs rumbled through them both.