Before I could react, his arm came around my waist and we… disappeared from the fight scene.
“Whoa, what the…?” I cried as we landed outside Mystic Fever.
My feet stumbled as my legs went to jelly. Thick arms came around me, holding me until I could support my weight.
“Thanks, Naz, although–” I started, spinning.
Tinniel released me, a tiny smirk lining his face. Ah, okay, Naz stood behind his brother, swearing as he tucked his crossbow into a satchel. It was brown leather and hadn’t been hanging over the man’s shoulder two seconds ago. Of course, as soon as the weapon was tucked away, the bag poofed into thin air. This weirdness was giving me a headache.
“What happened?” Tinniel turned to his brother, indicating that we should go inside.
Pausing, I let them walk a couple of steps ahead. When they reached the door, they both looked over their shoulders at me, their eyebrows raised.
“Right, you want me to join you?” I said, putting my hands on my hips as I breathed, barely able to swallow the lump that threatened to close my throat. I could not show them I was about to cry my little heart out. “A bullet covered in glitter almost killed me. I’m not sure I’m into effeminate gun fights. I think I’ll head to my job interview.”
Swinging around with a flare, I took two steps before they faltered. The two men didn’t say anything. At all. I tried so, so hard to resist the urge to look over my shoulder, but alas, my weakness made me glance, just quickly. They watched after me before shrugging and entering the club.
What? I mean, I didn’t want them to bloody well come after me, but they should’ve been chivalrous and made sure I was okay after my near death experience.
The alleyway was empty, people at work or looking after their children most likely. No one was near the club, which of course made sense, considering it was the morning. Why the hell was I still standing as if I was a statue? I wanted answers, didn’t I?
Growling in frustration, I flicked my hair out of my face – it sometimes had a habit of falling in my eyes – and pushed through the door of the club. It was quiet, only the sound of muffled voices coming down the corridor.
A zip of energy flickered over my skin as I ran, not wanting to hang around the creepy place on my own.
“She protected herself?” I heard Tinniel say as I stepped into the main club.
The lights were on, illuminating the whole area. Cleaners were sweeping the dancefloor, humming to themselves as they listened to music on their headphones. A couple of people sat around one of the tables, lounging on the two couches. They each held a clipboard and pen while an older woman spoke over them.
“You decided to follow us?” Naz stood on the edge of the room, indicating that I follow him.
Tinniel gripped his wrist, squeezing tight. “Do you think this is a good idea?”
His jaw clenched as he looked at me, his eyes flicking down to my tight cami top. I couldn’t tell whether he was eyeing me up or disgusted by the lack of sophisticated clothing. Either way, goose pimples exploded on my arm, making me skip past him.
“I need answers. This shit show has gotten out of hand. Is it too early for a drink?”
It was good to feel like myself again, even if I was in a world I didn’t understand. I couldn’t deny that my mother had gone missing. I had even tried to call her mobile once or twice this morning, but there had been no answer.
Smirking at his brother, Naz marched over to the bar and took out two beers. Offering me one, he clanged the necks together when I took it. “I would say Cheers. However, it’s not exactly a happy occasion.”
Taking a swig, Naz checked over his T-shirt, which was lightly covered in blue dust. The curse that left his mouth made me smile. Both brothers had tried to be calm and collected around me, but it was good to see that they weren’t perfect.
“You need to get that off,” Tinniel said, glaring over at the small table where the others sat chatting.
A couple of them had looked our way, their eyebrows almost jumping into their hair when they saw me. It was a strange feeling when people paid attention to me. It was so unheard of, except those times when I had belted karaoke. Mildly drunk, of course. There was a reason I kept to myself.
My wandering eyes and inner thoughts were interrupted when Naz carefully lifted his T-shirt over his head. As six perfectly formed abs thrust themselves into my eye line, I quickly turned away.
“Don’t worry your pretty head,” he said, laughing when I covered my eyes. “I know you’ve got a hard on for Tinniel.”
Coughing loudly, I pulled my hand away from my face. My cheeks heated beyond one thousand degrees as my gaze met Tinniel’s. His Adam’s apple bobbed, his expression still in resting bitch face mode, despite what his twin had said.
“What can I say?” I replied, searching for the funniest quip I could possible pull from my brain. “I’ve obviously been around too much fake magic… or something.”
Jeez, talk about dumb, Lyla.
Lifting my head and straightening my spine, I took a swig of beer and faced them both. The wind must have blown at some point, trapping Tinniel’s sombre facial expression. Naz, on the other hand, laughed heartily.
A man from the small group hurried over, drawing my attention away from the twins. Blinking, I tried not to stare. He wore a garish orange suit, which wasn’t too weird in London. No, it was his facial features. They were little, almost pinched. His nose, eyes and mouth, all sat closely together, giving the impression that he’d screwed up his nose in disgust and never been able to pull it back down again.
“Nazeriah,” the man said, tutting as the twin held out his T-shirt.
Rolling his eyes, the newcomer waved a hand near the top and grunted happily when the dust evaporated.
“I am not your personal maid!”
“Indeed,” Naz said, raising an eyebrow. “However, you are our most powerful cleanser. No one can clear magic as well as you, Donald.”
Shuffling on my feet, I swallowed several times before I tucked my free hand into the pocket of my jeans. Ah, there was a cleanser. A Healing Woman. Which made the twins what exactly?
“I’ve been sent over to request that you retake the last case. As sorcerers, you have access to the library.”
His eyes traced both the brothers before flicking to me. When his gaze narrowed, he puffed up his chest and stepped back. “What’s she doing here? I thought you’d failed with her.”
“We’re in the process of introducing her to our world.” Tinniel’s hand snapped out, his fingers capturing Donald’s wrist in a quick grip. “However, Naz was just attacked, so we’ve had to start the lesson early.”
A giggle from the bar was followed by Synthia and Zac stumbling through a door beside the beverages. They laughed together, shoving and pushing as they tried to… if my eyes weren’t deceiving me, they were – no, they couldn’t be.
“Zac,” Donald snapped, drawing both their attention. “You’ve been warned about using your power inside.”
The fire that had been balancing in the air in front of them dropped to the floor. It had looked like the pair were trying to push each other into it. The flames had been floating, flicking with nothing beneath it.
Turning to me when Zac dropped his gaze and muttered an apology, Donald offered his hand. “My name is Donald Sweet.”
“He isn’t very sweet though,” Tinniel said in his dark voice. “Maybe not today, my friend.” Knocking his hand away, Tinniel placed himself between me and the tall thin man with the screwed up face.
I shuddered, unable to help the reaction that Donald provoked in me. What was it about him that made me nervy?
Clearing his throat, Donald muttered something to Naz about speaking to him as soon as they were done with me. Tinniel gestured for us to sit on a barstool, indicating that Synthia and Zac join us.
“What would’ve happened if I’d shaken his hand?” My question brought a blink of surprise to Tinniel’s handsome face as we s
at around.
Licking his lips, he glanced at the others. “I’m surprised that’s your first question.”
My insides quivered as I studied them. Synthia with her pleasant happy face. Zac, his gaze cool and collected, despite being told off. And the twins. Well, Tinniel was as serious as ever and Naz was reaching over the bar for a bowl of nuts.
“Hey, they’re for the meeting!” Synthia tried to knock his hand out of the way.
Winking at her, Naz flicked his fingers. The bowl rose in the air, dodging her clasping hands and flying straight into his waiting palm. There was no denying that magic existed now, even in my own mind. There had been way too many examples of it, right in front of my face. The thought made me grip my hands into fists as my stomach churned. I wanted to flee.
“Don’t be afraid,” Tinniel muttered next to my ear.
I hadn’t even noticed that he’d leant closer to me, his frame letting off an intense heat that melted into my arm.
“The Federation of Magic,” Naz started as if he were about to give a lecture or sales pitch.
It wouldn’t surprise me if every person who ever came into contact with the cheeky chap had given him everything he asked for. His dark eyes were hypnotic, and I didn’t even fancy him.
Coughing, Naz smirked at me before settling on a stool. We sat in a small circle, all looking rather serious, if you asked me. My nerves jolted all over the place until Synthia put a hand on my shoulder, instantly calming me.
Tinniel placed his hands on his knees, taking in a long slow breath before he took over from his brother. “We’re a group of magical beings who are allocated cases from our bosses.”
Indicating the group of people sitting around the table nearby, Tinniel almost snarled his next words. “They pay us handsomely for taking down those they don’t want to handle.”
“Taking them down? In what way? And why?”
They all stared at me, their expressions guarded. I didn’t blame them, I was a stranger. I still had no idea why they were telling me, or why they believed my mother was their leader. As if.
“You know what a bounty hunter is, right?” Synthia asked, shrugging when Tinniel frowned.
Nodding slowly, I tried to remember the exact meaning of the term. “Sure. They’re people who go after bad guys who have skipped bail. I think?”
“Indeed.” Naz munched on more nuts, offering me a handful when I stared at him.
Refusing with a polite shake of the head, I waved for them to go on. Patience was a virtue of mine, until it ran out.
“That’s what we do. They tell us who to hunt, we bring them in, they deal with it from there. We get paid, done and dusted.” Synthia snatched the bowl of peanuts from Naz, frowning when they disappeared from her hand, landing back in his.
“How are you doing that?” I asked him.
Quirking his lip, he raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yeah,” I replied, taking the bowl from him and putting it back on the bar. “I would.”
“Oh…” The smile left his lips when Tinniel smacked him around the head, telling him to pack it in.
They glared at one another, their lips pulling back from their teeth. I wouldn’t want to cross either of them, but in that moment, Tinniel was the one who looked like he might do damage to his brother. Until his brother blew him a kiss and turned back to me, leaving Tinniel to scowl.
“We’re sorcerers. We can perform magic with a flick of our hand without affecting the balance of Earth.”
“Unlike you, as a witch,” Naz piped up. “You have to bargain with ‘ole Mother Earth to balance your magical karma. Well, sort of.”
Huh? Here they went again, with their weird claim that I was a witch of some sort. If I had magic, I would’ve seen it by now, wouldn’t I?
“You just used your power to protect yourself from that bullet.”
“I did what now?”
“It’s like teaching a pre-schooler.” Naz threw his head back and groaned.
Tinniel pushed his brother’s shoulder, almost knocking him off the stool. “That’s because she has a terrible teacher.”
Turning his chair to face me, Tinniel blocked my view of everyone else. “Let’s get this over with.”
His cheeks turned slightly red when I scooted forward, unable to help myself from getting closer. What was I doing? Why were my hands pulling my stool close enough to touch knees? It was all too intimate and a little desperate. I didn’t even know the guy, and yet, for some reason, I turned into teenage Lyla, fawning over the big hunky man. Somebody better get me a bag of ice so I could transform into Miss Cool.
“Your mother is a witch from an ancient line of tracker witches. Ford is a name known in the paranormal world by many guilds and covens.”
There was the coven word again. A witch? A cackly old woman with grey puffy hair and a broomstick? Okay, so I was being totally stereotypical, but still, my mother wasn’t a witch.
“She’s going to be in denial forever,” Naz groaned. “The thoughts are tumbling all over the place like marbles dropping out of a brain.”
“Nice visual,” Zac said, rolling his eyes.
“Give her a chance.” Tinniel shushed the others with a wave of his hand. “Your mother was the first bounty hunter in London. She wanted to help the officials to bring in the bad guys. She never qualified to be a paranormal cop though, so she started her own group of misfits who were brave enough to go after some of the most dangerous people in the world.”
“Creatures, really,” Naz interrupted. “Not sure you should confuse her by using people when they’re paranormal creatures.”
He was picking his teeth with his non-existent finger nail. Tinniel ignored him completely, making sure to indicate that I pay attention to him by pointing at his own chest. My gaze went to the hard formed pecs under his shirt, totally of their own accord, of course.
“Some of us don’t belong in covens, some of us aren’t entitled to them. We have warlocks, cleansers, seers, and sorcerers who all work together to track down the bad guys.”
“Or the missing,” Synthia conveyed.
“Or the missing.” Tinniel glanced at the girl. “Some private jobs come through the company. We’re quick to make sure that we take the job for the right reasons. We’re often in teams of two, depending on the case.”
Blinking as he took a breath, I waited for him to go on. I understood that there were obviously different types of magical people – in their world, not necessarily mine – that I would have to learn about. Wow, was I finally accepting that these people actually existed? And yes, I would call them people because damn, they looked just like me. And I was a person. Probably.
“Are you still with me?” Tinniel had become marginally animated as he told me about their world.
My own insides were a mess of confusion and denial, just like Naz had explained. However, a spark of something in my chest made me nod. I wanted to know more, especially if it involved my mother.
“You are one of us.”
Swallowing, I kept my gaze on Tinniel. I wouldn’t bother to fight him right now, he might have answers that I never knew existed.
“Your mother tried to hide your true existence because you’re the last two witches in your blood line.” Naz passed me his phone, showing me a picture of my mother addressing the people who sat around me.
A lump came to my throat. As hard as she’d been, she was still my mother. She was missing, taken by the man in my forgotten memories.
“We’re unsure who’s taken her,” Tinniel said. “Hence, our quest to find you. We need your help.”
Clearing my throat, I looked down at the phone again. “My help? How the hell can I help you?”
“You’re a tracker witch. You can use your instincts and magic to detect where people are. You won’t be powerful enough to track your mother yet, but with some training, hopefully you will.”
Trying not to bark a laugh at the absurdity of their claim,
I attempted to keep my face straight. Their raised eyebrows told me that I wasn’t doing a good job at hiding the hilarity that bubbled up my chest.
“This is very serious,” Naz said, a glint in his eye when he glanced at his brother.
Tinniel huffed, got up from his seat and turned to leave, clearly giving up on me already. My gaze dropped to the phone again, my heartbeat loud in my ears. I didn’t blame him for giving up on me so quickly, I was in complete denial.
Wait.
My gaze traced the image on the phone again. “I… I think I’ve done my first bit of tracking,” I said.
Okay, so I was being a little sarcastic, but holding up the phone, I pointed with a shaky finger.
Naz came over, looking at the male in the photo.
Tinniel joined us, shaking his head in disapproval until he reached us. “What is it?”
Licking my lips, I took a breath before squeezing out the words. “That’s the man in my memories, the one who threatened my mother. He… I think he took her.”
Chapter Five
With my boots tripping along the pavement, I kept my hands by my sides. Music blasted through my earphones, keeping me company as I made my way to my old kickboxing gym. Something about the idea of thrashing a bag or two made me speed up. I hadn’t been to my gym for a couple of months, so the guys would probably greet me with open arms. Or groans, depending on whether I’d beaten them in the last few years.
At least I would get some normalcy back for a couple of hours. The last few days had literally blown my mind. Witches, healers, warlocks and a really hot sorcerer that refused to get out of my mind. Why did I have to have a silly girl crush on the tormented soul, Tinniel? He was the one you stayed away from, the moody and arrogant man who would never be able to love the way a woman deserved to be loved, blah, blah, blah. Not someone you fantasied about marrying and producing cute little badass babies with.
Apparently, the man I’d spotted in the picture was a long-time friend of my mother’s. The others assured me that he wouldn’t have been the one to kidnap her. Being a complete novice with messed up memories, I couldn’t disagree.
The Witch & the Bounty Hunter (Federation of Magic Book 1) Page 5
