Caged Magic

by Jennifer Lyon

  Linc abruptly stopped. “Don’t move.” It came out a bare whisper.

  She strained, trying to hear or see what he did. In the moonlight, she could see the house about half a block’s length away. To the left should be the building with kennels, but it was hard to see now. Straight ahead, something flashed, followed by a boom.

  Linc shoved her to the ground, materialized and threw the knife in his hand.

  A grunt and scream sounded.

  Risa jerked her head up in time to see a man materialize twenty feet away, dropping the gun in his hand to clutch the knife buried in his chest. His knees gave out, and he hit the dirt.

  A second man materialized next to him and fired his gun.

  Linc dove, rolled, yanked thin wicked blades from his calf holster, shot up to his feet and rocketed the two knives.

  All before Risa could get the safety off her gun.

  The second gunman bellowed and thumped to the dirt.

  Her stomach clenched at the sight of the blades lodged in his throat and chest. That was all she saw before Linc bent over the men and retrieved his knives.

  Gaining her feet, she raced to him. “Are they—?”

  “Dead. Two rogues. Let’s go.” He shoved the two guns into his waistband, grabbed her hand and tugged her into a run. “Stay low.” They passed two rows of kennels with an attached building.

  Linc’s hand on hers spasmed.

  An image flickered in her mind. A big but young man shackled on his knees…a red-hot brand pressed to his back. “Oh God.” She tripped, her entire head blazing with sudden pain and horror. Going to her knees, she yanked her hand free. “It was here. You were kept here.” She stared at the rows of kennels. Linc had said he was trained like a dog, and he’d meant it. Sickness and aching fury roiled in her.

  Linc dropped down, one hand on her face. “Look at me.”

  “I saw it. You showed me. I saw them branding you.”

  “Fuck. My fault. The memory hit, and I must have projected it.” His face hardened. “Push it out, Risa. Do you want to get your daughter? Or do you want to sit here and cry over something that happened over a decade ago?”

  Shadows of the past haunted his eyes, yet he hadn’t let it stop him from helping her rescue Kendall. There was no time for her to melt down. She nodded, put a hand on his shoulder and jumped to her feet. “I’m—”

  The ground pitched, rumbling and rocking as another quake shuddered the earth.

  Her chakras cramped, stealing her breath. It took an effort to fight it. “He’s waking more, almost fully awake. I can feel it. He’s sucking magic through the ley lines away from here. Like a supersized Hoover.” The shaking stopped. “Hurry!”

  He took off, and she stayed with him despite the constant tug on her magic. The house loomed up, two stories of brown paint faded to dried, cracked mud and blacked-out windows.

  “You sure she’s in there?” Linc asked.

  “Yes.” The need to get to Kendall propelled her forward. Sudden gray and black fog billowed up from the ground in a circle around the house. Her magic cringed, and sulfur burned her nose. “Demon magic.” Risa skidded to a stop. “That’s the black that’s been around Kendall. But it’s not around her, it’s around the house.”

  “Has to be Petra’s magic.”

  “How do we get through?”

  Linc touched the edge of the fog and jerked his hand back. “Huh.” The skin turned black at his fingertips and hung off in strips. Blood welled. “Demonic acid.”

  That had to hurt, but he just shook his hand. Looking around, he found two empty beer cans. After grabbing them, he threw one into the fog.

  It melted and twisted hideously.

  Risa backed up a step.

  Linc threw the other one over the fog.

  It landed perfectly intact on the other side. Linc tugged her back a few yards and crouched. “On my back. Hold on, and don’t fall.”

  Risa jammed the gun in her pants and climbed on. “You sure? It’s rising fast, up to your knees now.”

  “No problem. Hold on.” He launched into a run.

  She locked her arms around his neck, instinctively burying her face in his shoulder as he leapt up. And up. For a second, they were flying. Would the fog surge up and surround them?

  He landed, bending his knees to let her slide off.

  She turned. “It’s coming this way!” The fog had stopped rising and now oozed toward them rapidly. Instinctive fear gripped her, and she ran for the door.

  Linc blew past her, slamming into the door, shoving it open, dropping to a crouch with his gun out and sweeping the interior. Lights spilled over a bare room holding a card table littered with dirty paper goods, laptops, and a huge trash can brimming with fast food containers and beer cans. The place reeked.

  Risa spun around to see the encroaching fog. Too close, moving too fast. Fear slammed her heart against her ribs, and she banged the door closed, hoping to slow the vapor down. That shit would skin them alive. No time to think about it. She spotted Linc checking a closet and doorways, and caught sight of a staircase across the room.

  A low hiss spun her, and she stared in horror. Fog leaked through the cracks of the door, then the solid wood began to bulge inward. “Linc!”

  He ran out from another room by the staircase. “Shit. Upstairs!”

  Risa tore across the room. Halfway to the stairs, the door exploded open. Linc got there first, yanked her off her feet into his arms and ran up. His heart slammed against her chest. Tilting her head around his shoulder, she saw the fog billowing wildly, filling the room below and getting closer.

  Broken, exhausted sobbing reached them. “Kendall!” The walls and doors blurred as Linc ran, rounding through an opened door. He dumped her on her feet.

  Risa stumbled into the bedroom and focused on the crib. Her knees almost buckled when she saw the little girl. Kendall’s blonde hair was matted, her face drenched in tears, and she rocked in distress. She wore a dirty T-shirt and diaper. “Kendall.” It came out a thick whisper. Risa reached into the crib. She couldn’t quite believe it. Had she really found Kendall? Was the baby real or a figment of her desperate imagination?

  The baby lifted her head, her eyes fixing on Risa. For a second the rocking stopped, then she let out a wail, holding out her arms. The look on the baby’s face ripped out Risa’s heart—pure fear that Risa would leave her.

  Never! Hot emotion squeezed her chest, too much to process. She scooped her up and hugged her tight. Her nose clogged as those fat little arms wrapped around her neck.

  “I have you, baby. I won’t leave you ever again.” See, Blythe? I’m keeping my promise. More emotion stole her breath as she thought of her friend who’d loved her child so much.

  Kendall grabbed fistfuls of Risa’s hair, as if afraid to let go.

  “Fog’s in the hallway.”

  Linc’s sharp voice cut into the moment, jerking her back to their imminent danger. Where was Petra? She had to be here.

  He shut the door and ran to the window. After wrenching it open, he slid through. “Come here.”

  Risa leaned her head out the waist-high window to hand him Kendall. The baby whimpered, burying her face into Risa’s neck.

  The door creaked and groaned.

  Linc shoved his gun into his waistband. “Hold her tight.” Gripping Risa’s arms, he hauled her out the window and steadied her on her feet. “Careful.” He closed the window just as the door burst open inside the room.

  With the light spilling out the window, she studied the ten-foot length of sloped roof that ran the width of the house and wrapped around the corner. “What now?” Taking a couple steps, she eyed the solid six feet of fog rising from the ground to surround the house.

  Striding to her with sure footing, he said, “We’ll have to jump.”

  He’d jumped from his second-story window holding her before. But now she had Kendall, the baby clinging to her desperately. “But—”

  A shot exploded.

  �
��Fuck.” Linc stumbled, caught himself and pivoted around, a gun in his hand as he fired back toward another window.

  Kendall screamed, her body spasming in fear. Struggling to keep her balance, Risa looked up. Linc’s huge body blocked her and Kendall. He had his knees bent, arms up aiming the weapon. A line of blood dripped from his right biceps. Shot! He’d been shot.

  Refusing to panic, she shifted Kendall to one arm, pulled out her gun and leaned around to see a dark shape with shoulder-length hair leaning out an opened window. The acid fog split around her and raced toward them.

  Petra. She’s controlling the fog. She barely thought it before Linc fired his gun.

  The shot threw the witch back from the window, but the fog kept coming.

  Linc turned, reaching for her, blood pouring from his arm wound. Do something! Help him. That thought snapped her into action, and she concentrated on opening her chakras.

  The house shuddered, followed by a rocking jolt.

  Pressure cramped down on her chakras, wringing a gasp from her. Dropping the gun, she struggled to hold the baby. The earthquake pitched the house, and Risa lurched toward the end of the roof.

  No! She couldn’t stop. Couldn’t use her arms to catch her balance with Kendall in them. Her thighs burned as she fought to gain purchase. Don’t drop the baby! Two feet from the drop off, the house settled, and Risa caught her balance.

  Gushing out a breath, she shifted Kendall, when the house rocked again. Her foot hit the edge. Desperate, she reached out one arm to Linc.

  * * *

  Linc lunged to Risa, snapped out his hand and closed his fingers around her arm. Thank fuck.

  Another jolt hit, wrenching the entire house.

  Risa tumbled out of his grip.

  Everything slowed down into utter horror. Linc saw her wide eyes, the shrieking baby clamped against her chest, then her arm sliding from his blood-coated hand.

  She tumbled over the side of the house.

  Every instinct in him lit up. Catch them. Jump with enough force to get past the acid-fog line. Running, he dove into off the roof toward his witch. The bird screeched and spread his wings in the tat.

  He had to succeed. He stretched, pushed, willed himself to defy gravity and arrow through the air. His gaze focused on Risa. She’d twisted midair so her back would hit the acid fog sizzling below her.

  Oh fuck no.

  Heat flashed from his shoulder blades outward, then sudden weight whooshed out of his back. His muscles twisted and torqued as they fought to adjust to wings and flying, but all he focused on was reaching Risa.

  He shot forward and scooped his arms beneath her.

  His stomach skimmed the acid, but it didn’t matter. He’d caught them. The pain searing his skin didn’t compare to the relief ballooning through his entire being as the wings that had burst from his back took them up. And up. Sweat coated him as he powered through the air.

  “You have wings.” Risa shuddered in his arms, the baby pressed to his chest.

  “You have your child.” He’d never seen anything more beautiful than this dirty baby cradled in his witch’s arms.

  “Did you know your wings would come out when you leapt off that roof?”

  Everything on the ground was going to hell, but up here they were shrouded in the sable night dotted with crystalline stars. “No. I only knew one thing.”

  A flush warmed her face, and her eyes reflected the starlight. The pulse at her throat fluttered. “What?”

  He wrapped his arms tighter around her, ignoring the pain of his gunshot and the acid burns. He’d never known what this felt like, holding a woman and baby, and it tripped a well of want he hadn’t acknowledged since he was thirteen years old.

  To love and be loved in return.

  That thought scared the shit out of him. Even his wings trembled as if they’d hit a pocket of turbulence. Love. That was too risky. Gave the other person too much power. As a boy, he’d loved his mom.

  He’d paid for that love and trust with six years in a cage and a brand on his back.

  But Risa wasn’t his mother. She was a woman who would go to any length to save her child. He told her the truth.

  “I love you.”

  ~ 21 ~

  Risa had heard stories that hunters got their wings to protect their witches. After falling off the building, she’d twisted around and saw him leap, his eyes fierce, jaw clenched, entire body undulant with muscles. His wings had whooshed out, easily spreading six feet on either side of him. The feathers were intricately formed, the wings striped with shades of brown, bronze, gray and white.

  Then he’d caught her and Kendall.

  Caught them.

  No one had ever caught her. But Linc had cared enough to leap off a building and do it. He treated her the way Axel and Sutton treated their mates—cherished, protected and respected.

  Sure, that was amazing, but what really rocked her more than any earthquake? Those three words: I love you.

  Emotional shudders wrenched her heart. “I want to stay up here forever.” She didn’t want to face the ground and reality. For just a few more minutes, she wanted to be free like this, able to have the two things she wanted—Kendall and Linc. Wanted to live in the fantasy that together they’d take care of Kendall, love her, never use her for their own benefit.

  “If we could fly anywhere,” Linc asked softly, breaking into her thoughts, “where would you want to go?”

  “Close by? Our rooftop. Put Kendall to sleep in a crib under the stars, but close to us so she knows she’s safe and cared for. I don’t want her to ever be that scared and lonely again.” Once Linc had caught them, Kendall’s shrieks had calmed. Now she watched the wings, her gray-blue eyes wide and her tears drying.

  Linc’s arms tightened around her. “And us? Where would we sleep?”

  She smiled. “Who said anything about sleeping?” She pictured him on that rooftop, naked in the moonlight, all hers to touch and explore. The first thing she’d do, though, would be to circle behind him and ask the bird if he and the ink could move aside so she could see the brand. Touch and kiss each line of pain and shame he’d endured…

  “Risa,” he choked the word out, thick and needy. “You’re showing me.”

  “Because I want you to know.” He’d shared a piece of himself with her as they’d run toward the house. Trusted her with that single, horrible memory of being branded.

  “Know what?”

  Up here in the sky they were unbound by fears and the threat of bad things. Up here it was possible to have it all, and she gave him her heart in words. “That I love you. All of you, even the scars.”

  His eyes burned into hers, his arms tightened, and Linc leaned down, smiling first at the baby, then kissing Risa. His mouth touched hers with a tenderness more powerful than magic or weapons.

  Breaking the kiss, he said, “Once we defeat the spawn, we’ll go somewhere, just the three of us. Kendall and I will get to know each other, and when she sleeps, I’ll teach you to play poker.” His grin turned wicked. “Strip poker. And, baby, I don’t lose.”

  Everything in her wanted that—not the trip, but the family. To have both—this baby she’d sworn to care for, and the man who had won her heart. She’d never know if she could have it all if she didn’t take a chance and tell him the truth.

  Could he accept a child that was one-quarter demon? Fear and hope tangled into a thick knot at the base of her throat. She hoped to God he didn’t make her choose between him and Kendall. “Linc, I have to tell you something.”

  Tension rode into his body, and his head lifted as he scanned the night. “Tell me when we’re safely on the ground. We’re near the academy. I have to make sure it’s safe, then figure out how to land. I see cars in the parking lot. Something’s going on.”

  Since Risa faced upward in his arms, she couldn’t see, nor did she have Linc’s super-sharp hunter vision. But his sudden tension told her he had concerns. “What? Rogues?” She focused on her magic. “I don�
��t feel Archer.” She still felt the heaviness of his power suck, but it hadn’t increased.

  “Doubt it. I just saw Ginny helping a bloody woman, probably a witch, out of a car. The guys wouldn’t let her out in the open if rogues were still around.” He kept scanning. “We’re going to the field.”

  “So, um, you don’t know how to land?”

  He glanced down, amusement quirking up one side of his mouth. “Baby, I didn’t even know I could fly. I’m going by pure instinct here, plus from having watched the other mated hunters do it. Landing’s going to be tricky.”

  Risa tucked Kendall in tighter, readying to protect her as Linc banked around the athletic field.

  “We have an audience.”

  “Who?” She craned her head around.

  “Axel.” Linc flew low over the ground, getting a feel for it. Then he slowed and shifted until they were vertical, and landed on his feet.

  “Huh. Not bad,” Risa said as he set her down.

  Axel strode up.

  Kendall cringed back into Risa’s shoulder, a whimper escaping her.

  Before Risa could do anything, Linc’s wings folded around her and the baby, pulling them against Linc’s chest.

  Axel stopped, his green eyes taking in the action, then he sighed. “Risa, tell the bird I won’t hurt you or your baby.”

  “The bird? But isn’t Linc controlling the wings?”

  “The bird did it,” Linc said. “I can feel his protectiveness.”

  Was it wrong to freaking love that? A creature that wanted to protect her and Kendall? She stroked the feathers, which were soft and strong. “Falcon, Axel won’t hurt us.”

  The feathers wrapped around her fingers.

  “Good,” Axel said. “Now ask him to go back into the ink. Tell him you’re safe.”

  Risa should have felt stupid, except…the wings were real. And for her. “You and Linc saved us tonight, Falcon. Thank you.” She had to tell the bird that she was grateful to him for helping her find and save Kendall. If Linc rejected her, the wings would die. “You can go back into the ink now.”