by Helen Harper
“She’s a … a mage?” Logan asked aghast.
I stood up, starting at her head and travelling the length of her prone body. Every damned inch of her smelled the same. Confused hurt exploded through me. Simply put, I didn’t get it. Either way, the Brethren had been lied to. I’d been lied to.
I shifted back to my human form. I could no longer even bear to look at her. “Bring me a set of magic restraints. And Tom and Betsy,” I growled. “Now.”
*
The very second the next contingent arrived, I snapped the cuffs round Mack’s limp wrists and picked her up myself. As soon as I’d bundled her into the back of a waiting van, I turned to the pale, drawn features of Betsy and Tom. Neither of them could look me in the eye.
“Leave us,” I snarled to the others. “Take her back and lock her up.”
“Uh, where, my Lord?”
“What do you mean where?”
“The rooms Brady used to use aren’t…”
“I don’t give a damn. Just make sure she’s secure and away from everyone else.”
He bowed and, along with the remaining shifters, swiftly departed.
I stilled my body and dropped my voice. “Explain.”
“I … I … don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. And you know why I’m questioning you here and not back at the mansion.”
Tom swallowed. “She’s a werehamster,” he began.
I took a step forward but Betsy, surprising me, held up a hand. “It’s gone, Tom,” she said quietly. “Can’t you feel it?”
For a moment he looked blank. Then his face dropped. “The geas,” he whispered. “Oh shit.”
“Geas? That’s why whenever I compelled one of you, I still got the same lies? I assume Mackenzie put it in place. I just don’t understand why.”
The pair of them looked alarmed. “No!” Betsy burst out. “She didn’t do it. She came to us when she was a child! And she’s not a mage. She’s just human. She can’t do magic.”
“She just set herself alight doing magic. She’s no fucking human.”
“Yes, she is!”
I looked at Tom. He still wouldn’t quite meet my eyes. It would be an easy thing to compel him here and now. With this geas that they were speaking of apparently gone, he’d sing like a canary. Somehow I wanted to hear the whole truth from Mack’s lips though.
“My Lord,” Betsy pleaded, “she’s a good person. She really is. None of this is her fault. Her mum dumped her in Cornwall and John took her in. She’s always been loyal to the pack…”
“Except for the lying part,” I interrupted. “And the running away part.”
“She didn’t have a choice,” Tom said quietly, finally speaking up. “Julia will tell you the same. She’s already here in London. Even Anton who hates Mack will tell you the same.”
Even now, she was inspiring loyalty. There was definitely a lot more to this story. But it was just possible that, at least as far as Mack was concerned, I was finally getting some answers. I thought of the red fever. It was also possible I was getting them far too late.
“If you lie to me again, I cannot be responsible for the consequences.”
“We would never betray you, my Lord.”
“Except I think you already have.”
The answering expression on both their faces told me everything I needed to know. I sighed. “You should get home,” I said. “This isn’t the time to be wandering around in public.”
“Are you alright, my Lord? Your burns…”
“Will heal. You’d better drive though,” I said, tossing Tom the car keys. “It wouldn’t do to be pulled over by the police for driving naked.”
I didn’t think I’d ever seen someone look so relieved. “My Lord, you won’t hurt her, will you?”
Betsy was aghast at the question. “Tom!”
I smiled faintly. From what I’d heard so far, I was starting to wonder whether the only victim around here was Mack. “No, I won’t.”
Checking that we still weren’t being observed, I looked around, freezing as there was a faint buzz in my head.
Hello? It was, naturally, Mack. No-one else could contact me like that. She sounded scared – and vulnerable.
You’re awake. We have a lot to discuss, kitten. I wanted to say a lot more but I wasn’t sure, at this juncture, if I could trust myself. I gently broke off the contact. I’d be seeing her face to face again soon enough.
Chapter Sixteen
It irked me when I finally got back to the Brethren headquarters and realised that Staines had already started with Mack’s interrogation. I knew he didn’t trust me around her – and that his mistrust was not entirely misplaced because I never acted completely rationally when she was involved – but I’d wanted to speak to her myself first. I vaulted down the stairs to where she was being kept, thinking with a slight lurch of my stomach that it was exactly the same room where Brady had met his end. There was an unpleasant symmetry about it.
I could hear Mack yelling long before I reached the room itself. “I don’t know why that happens! This weird Scottish lady put this on me and then all of a sudden the green fire happened. It doesn’t mean I’m a mage!”
I padded down the last few steps but, before I could make my presence known, a brief wave of dizziness overtook me. I put my hand out to brace myself against the wall while my vision swam. That wasn’t good.
Staines was unimpressed at Mack’s assertions. “You can transport yourself at will into highly guarded buildings.”
“That was a – friend of mine who was messing around!”
I gritted my teeth at Mack’s mention of Solus and stood up, pressing the base of my palms against my temples to regain my equilibrium.
“You can go into a fight against Otherworlders, including at one point, I might add, the future Alpha of a local Pack, and win.”
“I work out!” she protested. “I’ve trained for years! That doesn’t make me a fucking mage!”
I took a deep breath and walked into the doorway, interrupting the tit-for-tat. “So, kitten, if you’re not a mage, then what are you?”
Her eyes went as wide as saucers and she gazed at me with palpable fear. Now that I had the chance to look her over, it was clear that she wasn’t at her best. She was covered in dirt. From underneath the veil of her bright red hair, I could make out a few streaks of blood, although it was difficult to tell whether the actual blood belonged to her or someone else.
“I’m nothing, my Lord,” she answered, shakily. “Just … nothing,”
Staines drew himself up, every hackle bristling with indignation. “He’s not your Lord. You don’t have the privilege to call him that.”
“Oh no,” Mack muttered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. I had to admire her for not cowering away despite her terror. Every odd was against her but she was still fighting. That was my kitten.
That’s unnecessary, I chided Staines privately.
It’s true, my Lord. Everything about this woman is a lie and it’s about time you saw her for what she really is. She’s not one of us.
Before I could respond further, Mack’s weight shifted. Her entire body was angled towards Staines in a state of rigid tension. I realised she was about to launch herself at him. That wouldn’t go particularly well for either of them. It was time to put a stop to this.
“You can go now, Staines.” I didn’t raise my voice but the command was clear.
He backed down, immediately dropping his shoulders and walking out to the door. I had to admit I was relieved. It was one thing for Staines to disagree with me; it was quite another for him to directly disobey an order.
Thank you.
He bowed his head. I’m your servant, my Lord. He threw Mack a parting look of sheer hatred. You can trust me. You can’t trust her. He closed the door behind him. I could hear him moving far enough away to give us privacy – but near enough to burst back in again if he was needed. It was hard not to smile at his concern.
Mack, for her part, was staring out after him with her mouth hanging open. Probably because self-control wasn’t one of her stronger points and she was baffled to see it in someone else.
“That’s what loyalty is, Mack,” I sniped. “Something that seems to be in short supply as far as you’re concerned.” I hadn’t meant to make that second comment but it still stung that she’d kept her true nature hidden from me. Whatever her true nature actually was. She was still obviously very frightened so, in a foolish bid to reassure her, I took a step in her direction. She immediately stiffened and took a step back.
I scowled, annoyed. “You do realise that I almost caused an inter-agency war on your behalf?”
“Er … I’m not quite sure what you mean.” There was confusion in her eyes, adding weight to her words.
“The mages,” I explained, “I thought they’d captured you. I was coming to rescue you.” The ridiculousness of the sentiment suddenly struck me and I lashed out. “But of course I didn’t know that you actually were one of them.”
“Corrigan, I’m not fucking one of them!” she pleaded. “They’ve done something to a friend of mine and I’m trying to make it right.”
I folded my arms. She certainly seemed genuine. I couldn’t let her see I was softening though. “So explain to me, Mackenzie, how you suddenly happen to have magical powers.”
“I don’t have magical powers! How many times do I need to say that I’m not a fucking mage? As I said to your bitch-slapped minion there, some witch up in Scotland put this necklace on me. Now I have freaky green flames that shoot from my fingertips. Up until last week, the most magic I could perform was pissing off everyone I came into contact with.”
Amusement flickered through me. I quashed it down and tried to remain stoic. “Well, I’ll give you the part about pissing people off, sweetheart. And yet,” I paused, thinking of how an entire pack, not to mention two Brethren members were keeping her secrets, “you also appear to inspire the most bizarre acts of loyalty.”
“I thought you said that loyalty was in short supply as far as I was concerned.”
She had me there. “Oh, on your part certainly.” I cocked my head, wondering whether her story would match up to Tom and Betsy’s. It was make or break time. “But tell me, if you are not a mage, then why do your little Cornish friends refuse to open their mouths to state one single truth about you, even when I compel them to do so?”
Mack inhaled deeply and met my eyes. “It’s a geas, Corrigan. My mother dumped me with the Cornish pack when I was a kid and some kind of geas was placed on everyone to prevent them from revealing that I was human. It’s not their fault. It’s not the fault of anyone in Cornwall – they had no choice. You can’t invoke Brethren law against them when they couldn’t have done anything about my being there even if they’d wanted to.”
Despite my relief, I couldn’t believe that she was still lying about some things. “You expect me to believe that you’re human? You can take down Otherworld creatures that send the best of my shifters running for the hills, and you’re human?”
She did her best to look innocent. I tried not to throttle her, circling around the room then halting right in front of her. “I suppose on one level it makes sense. You never did smell quite right. You refused to shift for so long as well. And the Alpha – Anton? That’s one of the reasons why he hates you so much.”
“Yes!” She jumped on it. “He wanted me gone for years. We know it’s forbidden for humans to have knowing contact with the pack. He wanted to protect them. So, you see, Corrigan, it’s not their fault, you can’t hurt them.”
I was taken aback. “Why would I hurt them?”
“Because they harboured a human.”
Several pieces suddenly clicked together. Her fear – and her lies – were starting to make a kind of warped sense. “Ah, yes, I see. And you think it’s against the law for shifters to consort with humans.” An interesting thought struck me. “There’s an easy way to solve that, you know. I’ll just transform you. I don’t know why no-one did that before.” Except I did. Only humans could be turned. And Mack wasn’t human. I continued to goad her into telling me the truth. “Did your previous Alpha not consider it?”
Mack squeaked, her eyes widening again. I had the feeling I was onto a winner. “I’m quite sure that you’ll end up being something slightly different to the werehamster you were passing yourself off as. Problem solved.” I leaned towards her as if I was about to bite her right now, right here. She drew back.
“What’s the matter, kitten?” I purred. “Do you have something against shifters?”
“Fuck off, Corrigan. No, I don’t have anything against shifters. I consider my family to be shifters.”
“Nobody else has dared to tell me to fuck off for years,” I said quietly. I thought about Lucy’s suggestion that Mack actually liked me in reality and moved closer to her, bracing both my hands on the wall on either side of her body so she couldn’t escape my gaze. She flinched slightly, revealing the wound on her cheek. It was worse than I’d thought. “You’re hurt.” I gently reached out and touched it to assess the damage.
Mack jerked away. “Well, that’s what happens when you get shoved into a cage and tortured by a crazed mage with nothing but blood vengeance on his mind.” Her tone was flippant but I knew from the light in her eyes that she was telling the truth. I couldn’t believe the fucking Arch-Mage had allowed her to be hurt. Questioning was one thing but I’d see him burn for this sort of torture.
“The Arch-Mage assured me that you were alright,” I spat.
“And I am.”
“I will have words with him.” In fact, it would be more than words. How dare he?
“Jesus, Corrigan, I’m not a shifter.” She sounded more exasperated than anything else. “You don’t need to get all worked up on my behalf. I’m just a human. Now, please, tell me that you will leave my friends alone.”
She stared up at me and I could feel myself getting drawn deeper in towards her. I tried not to lose all control, forcing the conversation back to where I wanted it. “As I said, kitten, I will transform you and then there will be no debt to be satisfied. You will become a shifter and stay here in London.” I licked my lips. “At my beck and call.”
“You can’t do that, Corrigan.”
“I’m the Lord Alpha,” I said simply. “I can do whatever I want. Besides, your transgressions mean that you owe me. You owe the Pack.”
“Yes, but…”
I decided I was tired of toying with her. It was time for the truth. “But I can’t transform you. Not because you don’t want to be a shifter, but because you physically can’t be transformed. And the only reason that’s the case would be because you’re already not entirely human. Your scent alone tells me that. And I assume that this is your real scent assailing the air, not some faked aroma that you have cooked up.” She started and I knew I’d hit my mark. “Not only that, but you can hear and initiate the Voice. No human could do that.” I lowered my voice further. “Do you think I’m a total idiot? You might have played me for a fool thus far but the buck stops here. With me. So, Mack, if you are not a mage, and you are not a shifter, then what the fuck are you?”
Mack’s eyes darted from side to side as if searching desperately for an escape. “I said it before, Corrigan. I’m nothing, no-one. I’m not trying to cause you or the pack problems. In fact, I’ve been doing my best to keep the hell away from the lot of you. Now, please, tell me you are going to leave Cornwall alone.”
After all this, she still wasn’t prepared to give me the truth. She wasn’t the only one who could twist words though. “Tell me what you are and then I will leave them alone.”
Fear flashed again across her face. My stomach tightened. She still genuinely thought I’d actually hurt other people to get to the bottom of all this. “You don’t trust me.”
“I hardly know you.”
I shrugged to myself. “You’ll have plenty of opportunity to get to know me, kitten.”
/>
“What do you mean?”
I laughed slightly. “You cause trouble wherever you go. It seems far more prudent to keep you here where I can keep an eye on you.” Shifter or not.
“You can’t do that!”
“Why not? You tell me what you really are. I don’t hurt your little country friends. You stay here.”
“Oh no no no no no, my Lord. I need to go back to the mages.”
I froze. “And why is that?”
“My friend, Corrigan.” She wrung her hands. “The one I told you they’d done something to. They’ll only release my friend if I go back to them.”
“Go back to them and do what?”
“Some weird mage training programme.”
I stiffened, my eyes raking over her face.
“Not that I’m a mage, as I keep telling you,” she quickly added, “but they seem to think that it means I won’t misuse my potential for power, such as it is. All I can really do is the green fire stuff and that clearly runs out of juice before I manage to do much. And they won’t help my friend unless I keep my promise.”
If she wasn’t a mage, then she didn’t have to go with them. I shrugged. “It’s of no matter. I’ll talk to them.”
“Fucking hell, Corrigan!” I could feel heat emanating from her skin. “It is of matter. I promised them I’d go back. And I am not going to let my friend down.”
My eyes narrowed. First that human, then Tom, then Solus. Who the fuck was she with now? “Is this a special friend?”
