by K. F. Breene
“Rapidly enough for what lies ahead?” Unnaturally Handsome asked.
Darius pulled his gaze away from me and met Unnaturally Handsome’s. “Whether she has or not, we’ve run out of time.” He swept his gaze around the table. “Let’s officially start, shall we? Why don’t we go around the table and introduce ourselves. Everyone knows Reagan and me, so we won’t bore you with redundancy. Penny, why don’t you start?”
“I’m Penny.” I cleared my throat as the intense gazes of the shifters and the velvety gazes of the vampires pinned on me, all disconcerting. “Penny Bristol. And”—Emery chuckled, though I had no idea why—“I’m the untrained natural witch we were just talking about.”
“Did you say witch?” Bursting Jacket’s haughty tone indicated he was less than impressed.
“Mage,” I amended quickly.
“No.” Emery dropped his warm hand to my knee. “Witch was true enough. She wasn’t trained in the typical mage style. She has largely felt out her magic, like witches do. She’s stronger for it. I learn from her as often as I teach.”
“But…she has the power of a mage?” Roger asked, and there was no condescension in his tone. He was simply trying to clarify, unlike the other Alpha.
“She has the power of a natural,” Emery said. “She easily rivals me. I have more experience and world knowledge, but she has more creativity. Together, we are the perfect team.”
“I can validate his assessment. They work exceptionally well together,” Darius said. “The best I have ever seen, and they are not yet dual-mages.” Emery stiffened slightly. “This is often the case, of course…with a natural pairing.”
Unnaturally Handsome leaned forward just a little, his body language showing the interest his face didn’t express.
“I’m Emery Westbrook.” Emery took his hand from my knee and leaned his forearms on the table in a position of power. “The Rogue Natural. I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”
“I heard you and your brother were a natural dual-mage pair until the Guild killed him,” Bursting Jacket said, about as subtle as a steel mace.
“One of their barons ordered it, and an underling carried it out,” Emery said in a monotone.
“So this is something of a Hail Mary to you, huh?” Bursting Jacket swiveled in his chair, bringing his massively broad chest to face Emery. “You want revenge, and you knew the vampires would be all too happy to stick their hands in the Mages’ Guild’s pot. Probably get to nibble on a few necks while they’re at it.” He huffed out a patronizing laugh and shook his head. “Why are you wasting our time? Didn’t anyone tell you that we don’t support vampire agendas? And we sure as hell don’t help them take control of organizations they have no business messing with, all so some spoiled kid with an ego can get revenge.”
Emery silently held Bursting Jacket’s stare, and shifter magic leaked into the air again, prodding at me. Bursting Jacket might’ve looked confident on the outside, but he was feeling the pressure of a natural staring him down. Neither the vampires nor the other Alpha interrupted the silence. A bead of sweat dribbled down my back. Magic started boiling above me again. A grin spread across Reagan’s face.
“If it were up to me,” Emery said finally, his voice low and dangerous, “I’d be long gone. The Mages’ Guild could choke the life out of the magical world in the Brink, and it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. I only returned from the wilds because Penny was in danger. Being that I had a hand in placing her there, I felt it was my duty to see it through. You have Penny to thank for my willingness to help save your ass. Because while your packs might not be directly affected now, it’s only a matter of time before the Guild crates you…and walks away.”
The pressure in the air coated me like a blanket. Bursting Jacket pushed back and crossed his arms over his chest, his jacket practically moaning with the effort to stay in one piece. “That right? Crate me?” The threat was plain in his voice. When Emery didn’t respond, and didn’t look away, a small crease wormed in between the big shifter’s brows. “And how about you, little witch?” His eyes slid to me. “Why are you here?”
I took a deep, steadying breath, trying to ignore the constant thump of his magic on my chest, like someone repeatedly poking me. “First, because the Mages’ Guild is trying to hunt me down and capture me. My preferred style of fighting is usually defense turned offense. They made the first move. I’m retaliating.
“Second, and most importantly, because they are a corrupt organization that is flouting the laws with abandon because no one is strong enough to stand up to them. Not the vampires, and not the shifters. That’s why you guys are here. This isn’t just a mage problem anymore—it’s become a magical people problem. And like Emery said, it might not affect you now…much…but at the rate they’re growing, it won’t be long until they do. Since your job is to ensure humans don’t find out about magical people, the Guild flouting the laws falls under your jurisdiction. It’s your problem more than the vampires’.”
“She is correct. I have seen their power grow incredibly quickly,” Unnaturally Handsome said. “They have infiltrated magical communities in the Brink to an unprecedented degree, promising things that”—his gaze fell on Emery—“most mages covet. Power. Money. Acclaim. Penny is right. This is a universal problem that must be taken out by the root. But please, let’s continue with the introductions before we go into more detail. Rex, since you are only seeing the very tip of this, you’ll certainly want some proof of what is inevitably headed your way.”
Bursting Jacket was named Rex.
“Wait, do you turn into a T-Rex?” I blurted out. I waved it away. “Never mind. Sorry. Not important. I mean, it would be incredibly cool if you did…” I waited for some sign that he did. Nothing came. “And it would explain the stronger-than-thou vibe you’re hellbent on pushing in everyone’s face…” His face remained stoic. “Right.” I nodded. It was probably taboo to ask a shifter which animal they changed into, much like it was to talk about how swampy vampires were in what Reagan called their “monster” form. “This isn’t the time. I get it.”
“She’s bad at people,” Reagan said, and Emery coughed into his fist, trying to hide his chuckles.
“I turn into a Kodiak,” Rex said in a growl.
“Right. Standard animal, then,” I said softly.
“That is Rex Keel,” Unnaturally Handsome said, trying to restore a sense of decorum in the meeting. “He is the Alpha of the European Union.” His gaze shifted to Roger, clearly trying to keep things moving.
The shifter didn’t skip a beat. “For those who don’t know me”—I got a glance—“I’m Roger Nevin.” Another glance. “A wolf. I’ve been following the situation in Seattle closely. My people are in a tight spot there, but we don’t have the resources to combat the issue. While it is no secret that I would rather not work with vampires, I can see no alternative in this one instance. That is, if we have enough manpower to settle this. I do not intend to send my people to their deaths.”
Roger shifted his intense stare to me. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Penny,” he said. His stare softened my bones and scrambled my stomach in nervousness. A song of wolves drifted into my mind’s eye, and the smell of evergreen trees on the night air infused my senses. It was lovely, don’t get me wrong, but the guy was intense. There were no two ways about it.
“And, Miss Bristol, my name is Vlad. It is lovely to make your acquaintance.” Unnaturally Handsome’s velvety gaze stroked across my skin.
Vlad. That name rang a bell, but I couldn’t place it.
Before I could give it more thought, Rex had pushed forward and banged down his forearms on the table. “Time’s a-wasting. What’s in this for us?”
9
An hour later, Rex hadn’t gotten any more likable. The opposite, in fact, if that were possible. What he had gotten was more intense. With each perceived (or outright) slight toward him, he magically flew off the handle, slamming the room with his aggressive magic while staring hostilely
at whoever had set him off.
He wasn’t the only one misbehaving. The room was like a swamp of prickly egos, and they were all barely trying to get along. Since the Redcap goblin, I seemed to be able to feel the magic of others more strongly, and surges of it kept rolling over me from all directions. Everyone seemed to want something for helping. It wasn’t enough that they were ending a very real, very terrible threat—they wanted a say in how things got remade. And, in the vampires’ case, they wanted to actually be in the Guild. To make decisions.
Over my dead body.
I blew out a breath as yet another wall of magic smashed into me, this time from Vlad. He gazed at Rex, and the look was entered onto my never ignore list, under the subset of when you should run like hell.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Reagan held out her hands, just as worked up as everyone else. “Do we even know which elder is siding with the Guild? And the size of his or her faction?”
She was talking about the revelation, some months ago, that the Guild was no longer working alone. Their vampire allies had infiltrated Darius’s group and blocked an SOS call from me when Emery and I were cornered by mages in New Orleans. Darius had been blindsided, and shifters had saved Emery and me.
Darius steepled his fingers. “No. We don’t know who is giving the orders. I’ve extracted two vampires from my faction that I had thought were loyal to me. Sadly, they went to their eternal grave before I could get sufficient information. I know only that it is an elder pulling the strings.”
Vlad’s hard stare beat into Darius. “You had a breach of loyalty?”
I cocked my head to the side. Was it just me, or was Vlad a little too anxious about Darius’s breach of loyalty?
“Yes,” Darius said. A new wave of ferocious vampire magic swirled through the room, the first time Darius had come close to losing his cool. “I would look into your people, Vlad, if I were you. The breach was…wholly unexpected.”
For a moment, the unnaturally handsome mask peeled away from Vlad’s face, and I knew that no matter how lovely he looked, he was a ruthless killer. A predator of predators. Shivers coated my body.
“So let me get this straight,” Rex said. He braced a huge hand on his knee. Sweat beaded his brow. “You’d be going up against a host of some four hundred mages or more, at least one natural, and an unknown number of vampires, one of whom is an elder?” He paused to look around the room. “And you’d do this with only one more untrained natural, a bald bounty hunter, and one more elder, who I wouldn’t trust with my worst enemy’s life?” He laughed, shaking the table. Roger watched him silently. Angry, potent magic from everyone else slashed at my senses. “No wonder you are desperate for our help. They got numbers and the home field advantage, and you’ve got a losing battle. I mean, look…” He tapped his finger on the table, his grin implying we were all idiots. “It’s pretty obvious they’d wipe us out. I get the issue, but—”
“Do you?” Reagan leaned forward against the table and speared him with a hard stare. A challenging stare.
Rex’s magic blasted me again, slicing into my body and jabbing at my energy.
Rip. Kill. Tear.
“How in holy hand grenades are you in charge of anybody?” Struggling to breathe, already on edge and barely holding it together, I squeezed my eyes shut and clasped my hands together, the desire to jump to Reagan’s defense so strong I could barely think.
“What did you say?” He swiveled toward me slowly, his eyes on fire. Emery stiffened next to me.
I rubbed my temples, my mind hazy from the constant battering of powerful magic. My filter was long gone. “When someone argues with you, your first inclination is to rip them apart. It’s so second nature that it seems like it must usually work for you. You’ve learned brute force ends arguments. But you haven’t stepped up once tonight. I can only surmise that it is because you are, at heart, a coward. Here, among these powerful people, you know you’ll lose. You are the worst kind of leader. The worst kind of person to have power at your disposal.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose, his new blast of magic suffocating me. The desire to lash out at him boiled my blood.
“We have but a small collection of mages,” Darius said, somehow unruffled by the fuss and clearly ignoring me, “but their power and experience is vastly superior to anything that will be thrown at us. And I can’t imagine I have to tell you the power Vlad and I can summon. We each have vast resources at our disposal. More so than any other elder.”
“Their natural is nothing,” Reagan said, tag-teaming with Darius (while also ignoring me). “Emery is indisputably the best mage in the world. He is above everyone else…save Penny. Together, they are better still, as we’ve said. The Guild’s natural might be as powerful as each of them individually, but she will not stand a chance when confronted with Penny and Emery together. Not a chance.”
“Says the bounty hunter?” Rex pushed.
“Yeah,” Reagan said, her eyes glittering menace, her magic flirting with mine. “Says the bounty hunter. Don’t play dumb. I know you’ve heard of me. Your shifters give me a wide berth. Why do you think that is? Because I smell weird?”
Rex scoffed and turned. “Look, Roger, I get why you’d want to bring me in on this. Two elders and two naturals? It sounds great on paper. But this”—he gestured around the table—“doesn’t add up. Not compared to what they’re up against. It isn’t our fight, but it would be our deaths. And for what? We’d be pushed out of the end prize.”
“You are only this flippant because you have no idea what the Mages’ Guild is doing,” Reagan said, frustration ringing clearly in her voice. “You said you had some bad mages filtering into your area. Just a couple, you said, right? Well, that couple has run you ragged. What do you think a host would do, and you powerless to stop them?”
“We’re stopping it before it starts,” Rex bit back. “They won’t get a host in. We’ll kill them before they do.”
A wave of dizziness overcame me. “He’s the wrong sort.” I shook my head, power pumping through my middle. I exhaled and wiped my eyes, but it didn’t help dislodge the strange feeling of disembodiment. “We don’t need all the help; we need the right help. And he is not it. If there is anyone in the world I wouldn’t want to go into battle with, it is that man right there. Oh good, there’s another blast of magic. I was worried he’d suddenly learned to control himself.”
“You okay?” Emery asked quietly.
“No. I don’t know. I don’t feel right. But one thing is certain—he won’t step down from leadership. He craves the power. We can all see that. And clearly, none of the shifters can, or will, tear him down. How many people is he squashing with his rage? How many people have been killed because of his ego and small-mindedness?” I shook my head, and a wave of vertigo had me leaning forward. “Wow, I need a breather. But before that…I can help. We want the shifters to help us, so we should help them. It’s only fair. I can help…and I should. Right?”
Confused silence descended, and I struggled to piece together coherent thoughts. I couldn’t think past what I knew, in my heart of hearts, needed to be done—the right thing, which only I could accomplish. But I couldn’t stop to analyze my own thoughts. Shifter magic was shoving me. Rolling me. Yanking me. It was like I was trapped in the rolling, surging tide, no idea what direction was up.
“Please stop,” I begged. “I’m losing control.”
“Do it.”
Darius’s words on the breeze. Barely loud enough for me to hear, but plenty loud for me to feel.
Because I could feel words now, apparently.
Rex leaned forward just a little, and the power shoving me thickened. He was pushing his advantage, I could feel it. Bullying me with his brawn and, perhaps unknowingly, also bullying me with his magic. He didn’t think I had the might to take him.
“Rush him,” Reagan said softly.
Without warning, all four vampire guards from around the room charged forward, right toward Rex. Roger surged up, his magic erupting
. The shifter sentries launched into action.
Reagan’s magic pumped out and then through me, wonderfully complex. A solid wall of air cut the rest of the shifters, including Roger, off from Rex. The Alpha roared, something unbalanced and vile about the sound. He braced and ripped his arms forward into a flex, his jacket finally giving way. It ripped at the seams and across his back.
I reached through Rex’s magic with a kung fu fist, battering away all the wires and spindly parts and strange things that I didn’t understand, until I found the root. The spark. The thing that made magical creatures change. It had been in that goblin, it was in Rex…and it was also in the vampires. Pulsing way down deep, far below the surface of their magic.
Rex’s spark flared…and I twisted it, snuffing it out, just like I’d done with that goblin. Magic ballooned in the room, but his animal didn’t emerge.
The vampires reached him, and I felt their sparks erupt before their claws and fangs extended.
Roger slammed into the wall he couldn’t see, his magic whirling around him, ready to change.
“Don’t hurt him,” I yelled at the vampires, now hustling Rex out of the room. He howled like a beast, and his magic choked me, but he didn’t change. Couldn’t. I’d blown out his spark. “Do not hurt him! It’s no longer a fair fight.”
Clothes tore as the other shifters in the room, save Roger, erupted into clouds of fur. A snarling weretiger and werewolf fell down on all fours, but the wall of air held them. They had nowhere to go.
All the magic swirling in the room sucked me up in a tornado, dragging me under.
“Easy, Penny,” Emery said, his hand on my arm.
Roger stilled as Rex disappeared and the vampires followed him out. The North American Alpha clearly realized he was trapped, and instead of raging or losing control, he switched gears. His calculating gaze surveyed the empty air in front of him. In turn, he studied those left in the room, his eyes lingering on me the longest. I had no doubt his animal form was incredibly dangerous, or he wouldn’t keep his position, but he was ten times as cunning as a man. He wasn’t a person you’d ever trust to be confined to a cage.
