Magic After Dark Boxed Set (Six Book Bundle)

by Deanna Chase

  “Gotcha.” Someone grabbed a chunk of my hair, and my head jerked back. Crying out with pain, I clutched Link tight to my chest. A rough male voice rasped in my ear, “Get used to it, faery. I’m going to really enjoy our time together.”

  Bile rose in my throat. This was it. How could I have thought we’d survive a trip to the Arcane? How long would it be before I was strapped to an evil scientist’s table while they shot me full of drugs and forced me to cooperate?

  “Put her down,” Maude ordered from behind us. The guard spun me around and planted me on my feet. Link, still in my arms, growled. I almost wanted to mimic him.

  “Step back,” Maude commanded the guard, waving him away. He made a disgusted sound deep in his throat and shoved me toward my aunt. She towered over me, her eyes the same color as her black wings. Her pupils dilated so far not even the rim of her blue irises showed. She leveled the gun right at my heart.

  Glaring at her, I stood with my shoulders back. “Vampire-grade tranq darts can kill faeries. You’re not going to pull the trigger.”

  She let out a mocking laugh, and her lips turned up in a grim smile. “Don’t tempt me.”

  Then she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. Holding it up, she asked, “Look familiar?”

  I stared at Clea’s picture. The contract must’ve fallen out of the file. I closed my eyes, wondering if the situation could get any worse. There was literally nothing I could do. My only skills lay with modifying plants. David and Link were my weapons. But Link was totally harmless in his current state. My bug was broken and lost in Maude’s office. No one was coming. So when two higher-ranking guards—I could tell by the insignias pinned to their uniforms—grabbed my arms, I walked with them, praying David woke up soon. Or Phoebe had somehow heard the mess we were in. Deep down I knew neither was going to help, but the thoughts kept me sane. Until we rounded the corner and they stopped in front of the basement door.

  My lungs constricted and my heart sped up. Oh God, oh God, oh God. My wings stretched as if they could somehow hold me back. I twisted to find Maude directly behind me. “Why here?”

  Her steely, evil gaze told me everything I needed to know. I was being punished in the worst possible way. Underground, with no hope of escape.

  A guard, with hands larger than my head, clutched Link as he squirmed and howled his protest. Ice froze my heart. I couldn’t help him. Just like I couldn’t help David. Or myself. David. Was he still lying sprawled on the floor where they’d left him? What would they do to him? Where would they keep him?

  Fear crawled up my spine, quickly transforming to utter panic as the guard behind me pushed me onto the tiny stairway. No railings. No light. Just walls on either side. My eyes refused to adjust to the pitch-blackness. All I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other or risk being pushed into the abyss.

  “Put her in the one to the left,” Maude ordered. A small click sounded from behind us. A bulb in the middle of the room came to life, barely illuminating the dank space with pale green light. A wall of diamond shapes floated in front of me in the darkness. I squinted, trying to identify the odd images.

  “Move,” Maude ordered. The barrel of the tranq gun stabbed me in the back, scraping one of my wings.

  “I’m going,” I snapped. “Get a grip. It’s not like I can see anything down here in your horror-movie dungeon.”

  The tip dug deeper into my shoulder blade. I stumbled forward and landed face-first against cold metal wire. The links crisscrossed over my face and that’s when I realized what the odd diamonds were. A cage. A faery-sized cage. They weren’t just going to leave me down there. They were going to lock me up.

  “You can’t do this!” I brought my hands up, clutching the front of the cage, my fingers digging into the metal. “I’m an agent of the Void. I deserve—oomph,” I cried as something hard swept against my legs, knocking me to one knee.

  “Shut up or I’ll break your ankle.” It was Maude. She hovered over me, swinging her gun as if it were a billy club. She yanked the cage door open, the rattle of metal on metal echoing through the room. “Get in. Now.”

  Fear paralyzed me. Nothing could make me voluntarily climb in a metal cage. Metal for Goddess’s sake. Underground, surrounded by metal. She was trying to kill me.

  “Do it,” Maude ordered, her voice lower and harsher than before.

  I didn’t move.

  Boots clicked against the cement, and then someone grabbed me around the waist, tearing the metal from my death grip, and threw me. Hard. I slammed against the back wall. A sickening crunch registered in my brain before I realized anything was wrong. But as I fell to my knees, a sharp, piercing pain enveloped the entire right side of my back. My wings flexed in protest. A sharp lightning bolt of agony pierced my chest. No air expanded my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. Something was terribly wrong.

  “You know, at first when I found out Clea tried to kill you and Kilsen, I wasn’t pleased. That wasn’t in the contract. She was only supposed to bring me information from the Cryrique. I guess she blamed you for the death of her idiot lover. Such a stupid mistake, pairing Cryrique business with his Influence purchase.” She shook her head. “But now I’m thinking a little dose of Cherry Bomb might be exactly what you need.”

  I moaned, realizing Clea had played us. She’d known all along Daniels was dead.

  Maude let out a demented laugh. “Let’s see you try to fly out of here now.”

  The door to the cage slammed shut. A second later, a lock snicked closed with cold finality.

  Fading laughter and the sound of retreating footsteps drifted down the stairs as I curled into a ball, trying to control the pain blazing along my right side.

  I don’t know how long I lay there, trying not to move. All I could think about was Maude’s final words. Let’s see you fly out of here now.

  The blow to the wall had crushed my right wing. I couldn’t move it one little bit without my stomach trying to turn itself inside out. Hot, angry tears pricked my eyelids. The bitch had taken out David, grabbed my dog, and mutilated my wing. If I didn’t get medical attention soon, I knew I could be crippled. Wings were durable in that they could withstand a lot, but if they were crushed, they needed specialized attention, or they’d never heal right. What good was a faery without two working wings?

  A dose of good old-fashioned self-pity washed over me and I whimpered. What else was there to do but feel sorry for myself? A faint scraping sounded from outside my cage. Panic sent adrenaline through my veins. Had someone stayed behind? I held my breath, listening.

  Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape.

  “Link?” I said, my voice trembling.

  The scraping grew louder, more urgent.

  “Link!” My voice rose a few octaves, bringing fresh fire to my upper back. I stifled a gasp as I tensed and battled the pain. Where was he? Did they take him? Oh God, was he locked up too? And what had they left behind?

  Gritting my teeth against the fire running from my wing tip to my shoulder blade, I grabbed the cage door and hauled myself into a sitting position. White spots swam in my vision as my back seized up again. Holy shitballs, that hurt. I blinked away the flares clouding my vision and peered through the diamond-shaped openings.

  It took a moment for me to make out what was just ahead. A much smaller cage than mine, and Link trapped inside. My heart lightened. They hadn’t taken him. “Hey, buddy,” I called.

  His attention was focused on the door. Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape. He was using his one good paw to dig as fast as he could, but it was no use. We were sitting on a concrete floor.

  “Link,” I commanded. “Stop.”

  This time his head popped up, and he tilted an ear toward me.

  “I’m right here. Digging won’t help. See?” I reached down to pat the floor. My hand settled over a thick layer of grime. “Ugh!” I wiped the moist dirt on my jeans. No wonder he was trying to dig his way out. I summoned as much strength as I could and forced the
words out. “It’s no use, little dude. We’re trapped.”

  He gave a few more halfhearted scrapes, then settled with a heavy sigh on the ground, staring in my general direction.

  “I know exactly how you feel.”

  Link touched his nose to the door of his cage, sniffing the air.

  “Is something else here?” I forced myself to stand on shaky legs. I could barely see more than a few feet in front of me. Nothing but the eerie green light and darkness. Feeling my way along the edge of the cage, I peered at our surroundings. Through the gloom, I spotted two more cages. Empty.

  Better that than a whole host of prisoners. Right? A sinking feeling of helplessness took over, followed closely by rage. How could Maude do this? Whatever happened to justice? I could stand trial. I deserved a lawyer. This was still America, after all.

  But Maude wasn’t working under the law. She was the director of the Void. That meant she did whatever she pleased. And right now, she wanted me locked away.

  The power-hungry bitch. But why? What good was I down here? I could make Influence. And apparently change the chemical makeup of vampires. Was that it? Was she afraid I’d turn all vamps into sunbathers?

  Damn it! I would not just sit there in a cage and wait to be given orders. Tucking my injured wing close to my body, I ran my hands along each section of the cage. If there was a weak point, I’d find it. I spent agonizing minutes fingering every single connection on the gate, every joint, even the bottom where it hit the floor. Not one area showed a sign of weakness. In total frustration, I grabbed the side of the cage and yanked as hard as I could. Agony brought me to my knees. I gritted my teeth and waited for the worst of the pain to subside.

  Idiot. My tantrum had been useless. Not one single sign of movement.

  Beyond annoyed, I leaned my head against the cage door, too exhausted to form a plan. My head started to spin, and I vaguely wondered if it was from exhaustion or my broken wing. It throbbed with each breath I took. In a hazy, pain-filled stupor, I slumped down and curled up on my left shoulder.

  Exhausted, I faded in and out of consciousness, waking each time Link sighed or moved. After what seemed like hours, I fell into a deep slumber. And dreamed I was sinking in quicksand.

  I woke to a sharp pain in my wing and cried out, rolling to my stomach in agony. Gasping for breath, I pushed myself up on my knees, remembering the dream and the panic of trying to fly to safety. Great. I couldn’t even sleep without hurting myself. I blinked, trying to focus as I processed once again where I was. Arcane. Basement. Cage.

  How long had we been down here? I had no way to tell. The room was still cast in horror-movie green and darkness.

  Across from me, Link growled.

  My body tensed. Was someone coming? Nervous energy ran from head to toe. I cut my eyes to Link. He stood rigid, attention focused on the stairs.

  Someone was coming.

  At the top of the stairs the door creaked. Bright fluorescent light spilled down the stairwell for a moment, followed by soft footsteps. I pressed deeper into the shadows of my cage, but Link lunged forward, snarling and biting at the crisscrossed wire. Then he started to vibrate.

  “Link, no!” How was this happening? He shouldn’t be able to shift. This was bad. Very bad. His cage simply wasn’t big enough.

  A fraction of a second later, he shifted into full-on wolf mode. He howled as his large body smashed against the sides of the cage. Panicked and trapped, he began to shake, frantically trying to dislodge himself. I couldn’t do anything but stare as my poor wolf toppled the cage over. Lying on his side, he scrabbled at the walls, rolled again, and ended up on his back.

  Goddess, help him.

  The footsteps grew slow and hesitant. Then, with a burst of energy, Link flipped again, causing the cage to land at a forty-five-degree angle right where the two sides were seamed together. Something snapped. Link went crazy, bucking, kicking, and biting. In wolf form, the cage didn’t stand a chance.

  Before our visitor could get all the way to the bottom of the stairs, Link was free, head down, hackles raised, and teeth bared. My wolf was ready for a fight.

  Chapter 26

  The guard’s white uniform glowed in the dim light of the basement. He stopped at the base of the stairwell and squinted.

  The wolf watched him through gold eyes, his shoulders lowered, legs bent, ready to pounce. I sucked in a breath. Watching him wait for the exact moment made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

  The guard spotted Link and his eyes went wide with recognition. “What the hell? How—”

  Link lunged, his entire wolf body engulfing the short, pudgy guard in one swift motion. A high-pitched scream of terror filled the room, making me wince. Some guard he was. He sounded like a girl. Link swiped a heavy paw across the man’s face, silencing the earsplitting noise. The guard collapsed. Knocked out or dead, I didn’t know. Nor did I care. Blood pooled a few feet from my cage. Link snarled and nudged the unmoving body with his long nose.

  “Good job, Link.” I rose, arching my back, favoring my right wing as I tried not to hurl from the pain. That was one man down. But Link couldn’t get them all. And he wouldn’t leave me. I stared at his massive form. How had he shifted? We were still in the Arcane. As long as we were in the building, he shouldn’t have been able to. Was it because we were underground? Maybe the magic keeping the place dry interfered with the neutralizing ward.

  Had my magic come back? I clutched the door of my cage and glanced around at all the cement and metal around me. Useless. Even if I did have a spark somewhere, I didn’t have anything to siphon life from. And I wouldn’t weaken Link. Unless…“Link!”

  He snapped to attention and turned his giant head toward me.

  “Pull the guard over here.”

  His eyebrows twitched as if he was contemplating my request.

  “Just grab him and pull him to me.” I pointed. Come on. Who knew when the next visitor would be down or when they’d miss the guard?

  Link circled the man with his lip raised and then sniffed his black work boots. He jumped back as if the scent offended him. What could be so bad that even a dog wasn’t interested? I wrinkled my nose in sympathy. I wouldn’t want to put my mouth on the ruddy man, either.

  Gingerly, Link wrapped his muzzle around the man’s ankle and dragged him inch by inch until he lay along the edge of my cage. The wolf spat out the man’s limb and hacked, a full-on, hairball-raising hack.

  “Yikes.” What could possibly make Link gag? I knelt down to inspect the guard. Halfway to the ground, a sudden assault of formaldehyde hit my senses. “Oh, yuck. I’m so sorry, buddy.”

  The wolf lowered himself to the floor and covered his nose with one paw.

  “Yeah, no kidding. What is this dude, a zombie?” He reeked of chemicals and death. I placed a hand over his chest and let out a relieved sigh when it rose on an intake of breath. At least he wasn’t dead. If he was, he’d be useless to me.

  Moment of truth. I needed a life source. If I’d regained any sort of magical strength, I’d know as soon as I touched him. But where? I’d need an exposed section of skin. His hands or face. Because no way was I stripping down the stinky super geek. His hands were caked with blood from defending himself against Link and so was the right side of his face. Jesus. My dog was lethal. I’d known it intellectually, but he’d never had to take on a human before. Only vampires, and their wounds stitched themselves closed within seconds of splitting open.

  I grimaced as I rested two fingers on the man’s left temple. Then I snatched them back. I couldn’t take life energy from his brain. It would make me sick. Faeries could share energy. Faeries and humans, not so much. But I could take a little just to see if my magic was back.

  Get it over with, Willow. Closing my eyes, I touched his blood-soaked hand and searched deep inside myself for a spark of magic.

  Nothing.

  The little tingle that usually sprang to life at the tips of my fingers stayed dormant. I let out a
frustrated sigh. Maybe my body still needed time to adjust. Link always did regain his magic before I did after a trip to the Arcane.

  I pressed my fingers against the guard one more time, but no matter how far I searched within myself, no magic came to the surface.

  Well, crap. Now what? I needed a weapon. Or better yet, a key. A key! The concrete and metal must be zapping my brainpower. Why hadn’t I thought of that first?

  “Link, help me search.” Trying not to breathe in the sickening stench of the man, I dug into his coat pockets. “He might have a key to this cage.”

  Link sniffed along the opposite side of the guard’s body while I frantically moved to his pants pocket. The only thing I found was a wallet. Henry Mincer. Lived in Kentwood. No other identifying information except a credit card and a health ID card. “Come on, Henry. You’ve got to have something useful.”

  I found a ballpoint pen in his shirt pocket. Great. A makeshift weapon. I set it aside and tried to reach forward to get to his other pockets, but my wing and back froze in protest. I hissed and sat back, holding my wing tight to my body.

  Link gazed at me with worried eyes.

  “I’ll be okay once we get out of here.” I hoped.

  He nudged the jacket pocket I hadn’t been able to reach with his nose.

  “Did you find something?” I sat up on my knees, pressed against the door, and peered over his body. Tentatively, I stretched my arm through the diamond-shaped wire but snatched it back when the lightning bolts shot through my back. No way was I going to be able to reach it without passing out. I clenched my fists and tried to stabilize my breathing.

  Across from me, Link shimmered and returned to his Shih Tzu form. He eyed me, wagged his tail, and went to work on the guard’s pocket. His much smaller Shih Tzu paw slipped right in and a loud tink sounded on the concrete. He fished whatever it was away from the body with his paws and then grabbed the shiny metal cluster in his teeth.

  “The keys!” I cried. “Link, bud. You really are a girl’s best friend.”

  He trotted up to me, his hurt paw healed by the shift, and dropped the key ring near my hand. Then he sat there, his tongue hanging out in happy satisfaction.