by Helen Harper
I nodded my head and gave her the address. She bowed and unlocked the waiting car, opening the door for me. Instead of getting inside, however, I looked over at the blonde. ‘Who’s that?’
‘No-one. Just a friend.’
‘A hedge witch like you?’
She bit her lip. ‘Yeah.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I mean, yes.’
I smiled. ‘I’d like to meet her.’
Mara’s eyes widened in surprise. She knew enough of my mood over the last few days not to argue though.
Her name was Harriet. Harry for short. It was, I reflected, a particularly appropriate name for a hedge witch. It didn’t really suit her appearance though. To be fair, Harriet was an extraordinarily striking woman. If you liked blondes, that was. It irked me that all I was able to do was compare her to Mack.
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Corrigan,’ she said, a trace of flirtation in her expression.
‘There’s no need to be so formal,’ I told her. ‘Call me…’ I paused and grinned to myself. ‘Call me Corr.’ I could see Mara do a double take out of the corner of my eye. I chose not to react to it. ‘It’s gone midday, Harry. Would you like to join me for some lunch?’
She was obviously taken aback but certainly pleased at the attention. ‘Sure. That would be lovely.’
I gestured towards the car and she smiled, stepping inside. Then I glanced at Mara.
‘Alcazon, my Lord?’
I smiled. ‘No. Stick to the same address I just gave you.’
She sucked in a breath. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Do it, Mara,’ I growled.
She tutted to herself in obvious disapproval. I ignored it.
***
Mara dropped us off on a corner next to Wold the Batibat’s little shop. I pushed open the front door and peered inside, listening for a moment to the raised voices. I was already starting to regret coming here. I was definitely regretting bringing Harriet. Taking her hands in mine, I gave them a quick squeeze.
‘Harriet,’ I said honestly, ‘I’m not looking for anything here. Although I really do want some lunch.’
There was a flash of disappointment in her eyes. She wasn’t stupid though. She looked towards the shop and nodded to herself. ‘She’s in there, isn’t she? Mackenzie Smith? It’s all over the Othernet about you and her, you know.’ She paused. ‘Is it the real thing?’
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. ‘I thought so. I’m not so sure now.’
‘You want to gauge her interest,’ Harriet commented. ‘By using me.’
I looked away, recognising the truth of her words. I could kid myself all I wanted. There was only one reason I was here. I’d told Mack she was dead to me. It was probably the most unconvincing lie I’d ever given anyone. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…’
She smiled. ‘It’s alright. I’ve been in that position myself before. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do but…’ she shrugged. ‘Love is irrational. It makes you do things you normally wouldn’t. I get it. Go and talk to her. I’ll wait here until you’re ready.’
The guilt I’d been feeling earlier expanded inside me. I wasn’t a schoolboy. I shouldn’t be acting like this.
‘Thank you,’ I said. I meant it.
Harriet smiled. ‘Get a move on.’ She winked at me. ‘I want some lunch too.’
Quashing my guilt once more, I left her where she was and quickly entered. I made it inside just in the nick of time as well. Mack had a familiar look of stubborn concentration on her face, not to mention a livid bruise on her cheek that caused my insides to tighten. Did one of my shifters do that to her? I’d chew them out and make them wish they’d never been born if they had. She was grabbing a Brethren werewolf by the throat and glaring at him. Two others were on the ground and groaning while the Batibat cowered in the corner. I knew all three shifters. They were hotheads and probably should never have been invited into the Brethren in the first place. Another hang over from Brady’s time that I should have sorted out.
I inhaled, breathing her in. Then I spoke. ‘Let go of my wolf, kitten.’ I was impressed at how steady my voice was. ‘Now.’
Mack stiffened, before slowly turning round and glaring at me as if I was the one who’d been a bastard. I almost laughed at the preposterousness of the idea.
‘My Lord,’ she spat.
Despite the venom in her gaze and the mark on her face, she looked different. Healthy. Glowing. In my lighter moments, I’d been allowing myself to believe that maybe she’d been forced into this position by the Summer Queen and the Arch-Mage. Considering how good she looked, that didn’t appear to be the case at all. My expression turned to stone.
‘Release him,’ I ordered.
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Make me.’
Now there was an interesting prospect. Rather than rise to the bait, however, I simply sighed. This situation was already out of control. I shouldn’t be here and I shouldn’t be doing this. It seemed that these days I was full of foolhardy, emotion driven errors. The sight of her achingly familiar face seemed to have jolted me out of my fugue. She wasn’t really suffering at all. I should take that and leave her be. I wasn’t fifteen years old. ‘Mackenzie, don’t complicate my life further. Let him go and get out. I will take things from here.’ The only thing I could do was to defuse whatever situation she’d created. It’s what a Lord Alpha would do. It’s what I should do.
Unfortunately, my mere presence had already pushed her towards further typical aggression. ‘Take things from here?’ she snapped. ‘Take things from fucking here? What does that mean? That you’ll break out the hot irons to make sure you squeeze every single bit of information you can from her? She’s as much a fucking victim here as we are! How dare you send your minions here to treat her like an enemy combatant? What gives you the fucking right? Oh, the majestic Brethren, sweeping in to save the day and torture innocents. Is that how you get your kicks?’
The calmness that I’d mustered up vanished in a heartbeat and the effort of will it took not to throttle her was extraordinary. After everything, is that really what she still thought of us? Of me? And what the hell was she on about with the torture part? The Brethren most certainly didn’t go around doing that kind of thing.
Then I thought of Staines. The old werebear may well have encouraged aggressive questioning techniques and considered it a necessary evil to get the information we needed. I pondered over what was worse. Acting with brazen impunity and hurting whoever we needed to in order to get to the truth or allowing Endor to carry with his plans to destroy half the Otherworld? I was actually glad I’d not had to make that decision myself.
I looked at Mack. Regardless of what had happened here, she was in no position to start taking the moral high ground. ‘So now you think we’re monsters again, do you?’ I asked. I didn’t raise my voice but from the way she flinched, I didn’t have to. ‘It didn’t take you long to change your mind.’ In fact, it apparently didn’t take her long to change her mind on anything these days.
Mack threw her arms up into the air in exasperation. ‘What else do you expect me to think? You can’t go around acting as if you’re the fucking Gestapo! You can’t treat people like that, Corrigan!’
‘As a Batibat, she’s not technically a person,’ I pointed out pedantically. It was a stupid thing to say and I wanted to swallow back the words as soon as they were out of my mouth.
Mack gaped at me in irritated disbelief. ‘You know damn well what I mean when I say that. What Endor has done, what he is doing, it’s not her fault!’
‘She’s not entirely innocent.’ Unfortunately that part was true. ‘We know that he used this place to get the money he needed to begin his campaign. Right now she’s the best lead that we’ve got.’ That’s certainly what Staines would tell me when I confronted him about this little ‘situation’.
‘And beating that lead to a pulp is going to help?’
There was a squeak from behind her. The Batibat clearly didn’t like the
idea of being pummelled. I didn’t entirely blame her. Mack didn’t look at her but she did tighten her hold on the wolf. He stared at me, pleading for me to do something to help him before Mack snapped his neck. She wouldn’t kill him though. She wouldn’t even hurt him all that much. She might not be trustworthy as far our relationship was concerned but I knew deep down he wasn’t in any real danger. I felt a sudden urge to let her know that I wasn’t like that either, whether Staines was justified in his orders or not.
I took a breath and stepped towards her. ‘I was unaware of what was happening.’
‘Bullshit!’ she yelled. ‘Every single one of these shifters knew to watch out for me and not let me in. And they’d been told to do that by you. They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.’
Once more I felt the weight of leadership. I’d damn well had enough of all this. ‘Get out of here,’ I said to the shifters. I didn’t need them to witness any more of this bickering than they already had.
‘I already told you,’ Mack snapped, her yellow flecked eyes brilliant in her ire, ‘I’m not going anywhere until I get fucking answers! You can’t…’
I folded my arms and waited. Mack’s voice trailed off as she realised who I’d actually been talking to. The two on the floor limped up, bowing in submission before pelting out of the door. I raised my eyebrows at Mack. She was still holding onto the other one. With a dramatic sigh, she dropped him. Not before she sent a glowering scowl in my direction first though. He fell with a whine then followed the other two out.
‘I didn’t know what was happening,’ I said calmly, ‘until I got a call saying that they were here and under attack. I just happened to be in the vicinity anyway.’ Sort of. Apart from the phone call and the fact I just happened to be wandering by.
‘Stop fucking lying. I thought better of you than that. At least be honest with me, Corrigan.’
I shouldn’t have felt embarrassed at being caught out. Screw her. ‘You mean like you were honest with me? Fucking me and leading me on one minute then discarding me the next?’
‘I had my reasons!’ she spat. ‘And stop the changing the subject. Own up to what you’ve done and what you are. Coming here and doing this makes you almost as bad as sodding Endor himself.’
I couldn’t believe she’d just said that. How did I suddenly become the bad guy? I took a deep breath and counted to ten in my head, glancing at the Batibat still hiding behind Mack. She was literally quaking in her boots. Damn it. I wondered whether Staines had even tried to talk to her normally first before he sent in the troops. Maybe Mack was right in this. I really wished I wasn’t about to succumb to the need to continue to explain myself to her so that she thought better of me. ‘I had decided, in light of our,’ I searched for an appropriate word, ‘relationship with each other, that it would be wise to withdraw myself from this situation with the necromancer. I instructed Staines to take the lead. He has exceeded his authority and, believe me, will be dealt with.’ I looked at the Batibat once more. ‘Ma’am, you have my apologies, along with those of the entire Brethren. This will not happen again.’
She let out another squeak in response. Mack just frowned. ‘Yes, but…’
I turned back to her. ‘Not that I owe you any explanations.’
‘I’m the head of the council tasked to bring Endor down,’ she sniffed. ‘You owe me every explanation.’
I smiled slightly. ‘Ah, yes. Your new job. Tell me,’ I said, leaning in and taunting her, ‘how does it feel having all that power and control? Is it everything you wished for?’
‘Fuck. Off.’
I laughed. I wished I meant it. ‘Why so moody about it? You got what you wanted.’
‘I didn’t want this, Corrigan. I didn’t ask for this. There wasn’t a choice.’
‘There is always a choice.’ I ignored the sharp ache in my chest and searched her face. ‘So what happened? Was that one of my shifters?’
‘Huh?’
‘Your face. There’s a rather conspicuous bruise and it appears that you can only see out of one eye. What happened?’
‘Nothing.’
If it had been one of the three shifters who were just here, I doubted she’d be protecting them. ‘Mackenzie…’
‘I walked into a door.’
Surely, she didn’t really think I was going to believe that old chestnut? ‘What really happened?’
‘I told you,’ she repeated. ‘I walked into a door.’
I leaned in towards her. Her pulse was fluttering at her neck and, interestingly, the closer I got the faster it beat. ‘Who’s lying now?’ I whispered.
Her lips parted and I was suddenly sure what I saw in her eyes was agonising desire. My kitten had sheathed her claws. I wondered how hard it would be to really make her purr for me. To change her mind about staying away from me. My mouth hovered over hers and I met her eyes. Then there was a loud crash from the corridor outside and everything changed again. Shit. Fuck. Arse.
Chapter Five
The first thought I had was of Endor. He was back here to claim the Batibat or to get more from her to put the rest of his plans into action. I was ready for him. Mack immediately went for her daggers, as poised as I was for attack. Then I sniffed the air. Disappointment flooded through me. Not the necromancer after all – it was just another of Mack’s ridiculous hangers-on. I reached out and placed my hands on Mack’s wrists, stopping her. Her bare skin seared into mine like fire.
A moment later, Alex Floride’s face peered round the door. His eyes flicked from me to Mack.
‘Dude! Sheesh! What happened here? And what the bejesus happened to your face?’ He glared at me as he said the last. If he really thought I was capable of that then he was more stupid than I’d previously given him credit for.
‘It’s alright, Alex,’ Mack said, pulling away from me. ‘There’s nothing to worry about.’
I banked down a snort. No. Nothing to worry about. Just potential torture, a homicidal death wizard and an insane dragon. Why on earth would anyone be worried?
‘Are you sure?’ he asked anxiously. ‘Because, man, it looks like a hurricane tore through this place. Was it that Endor dude? Was he here? Did he take Wold?’
‘What?’ Mack said, surprised. ‘No, Wold’s here, she’s just…’
I stared at the spot behind her where the Batibat had been. There was no-one there. In fact, apart for a wet patch which I hoped was down to sweat, there was no sign that she’d ever been here at all. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. How had that happened? My gaze drifted up towards the open window at the back. Goddamnit. Yet again I’d been so focused on Mack that everything else had faded into insignificance. Forget Floride. I was the stupid one. Again and again and again.
‘Didn’t you see her get up and go?’ Mack demanded, her fists on her hips.
I growled. I wasn’t alone in the damned room. ‘Didn’t you?’
‘You were the one facing in her fucking direction!’
She had a point there. Not that I was going to let her know it.
Floride interrupted, clearly attempting to calm things down. ‘Whoa, should I go out and come back in again?’
‘Set up a Divination spell, Alex,’ Mack snapped, turning away from me as if the sight of my face disgusted her. Pain lanced through me once more. I wasn’t sure I could take much more of this. Talk about running hot and cold.
Floride jumped to Mack’s command quickly enough. I didn’t need him to track down the Batibat. She couldn’t have gotten far, after all. She was a huge lumbering woman whose sheer girth meant I doubted she could move much faster than a tortoise. She also possessed a distinct odour. Mack was determined to prove that she didn’t need me, however, and I supposed it would make the mage feel good about himself. Let’s face it, he wasn’t going to be any use in a fight so he had to prove himself worthy. I could allow him this.
He chanted away, slitting his eyes to aid his concentration. I had to grudgingly admit that, when it came to magical tracking, he was pretty g
ood. It took less than a few seconds for his snaky blue light to spark up. It rose up into the air, reminding me oddly of the questing nose of a cocker spaniel, before it sprang into action and corkscrewed out of the window. Mack wasted no time in leaping out after it. She landed outside with a heavy thump, her red hair streaming out behind her. As I launched myself after her, I caught a sudden whiff of her shampoo intermingled with her own natural scent and almost choked because I inhaled so deeply.
Side by side, we began to sprint after the spell. It led us away from the window and the Batibat’s shop and down the narrow alleyway. Naturally, neither of us had a problem with keeping up.
‘It’s heading for the main street,’ Mack said. ‘She can’t go there. A huge naked female Batibat is hardly going to go unnoticed at three o’clock in the freaking afternoon.’
I murmured acknowledgment. I hoped she was right and Wold would steer clear of public areas. It was never easy tracking down humans who might have seen something Otherworldly at this time of day so we could ensure their memories were altered. I’d been part of those round-up crews in my past. It was grunt work that was never fun. As my own nose testified, however, even the Batibat wasn’t rash enough to try thumping down the main street with all her, um, assets out on display. Instead Floride’s blue light shimmered up towards the first leaf-laden tree which lined the pavement. Wold was sticking to what she knew. We might not be able to see her anywhere but at least we knew where she was. Unfortunately it wouldn’t help. There were enough trees on this road that she could use her natural skills to stay completely hidden. As far as my own senses were concerned, her trail stopped right here. Floride’s magic seemed to agree.
‘Fuck.’ Mack slammed her hand into the trunk of the tree. ‘We’ll never catch her now.’
I nodded in reluctant agreement, looking at the long row of trees. ‘She could jump from one to the other and we’ll never know where she is.’
