“Hey, you okay?” Cassidy said as he squatted beside me.
I snapped out of my daze and set my phone down on my desk, plastering on a fake smile. “Yeah, of course.”
He tilted his head. “Grey, you’re a horrible liar.”
I pushed him and laughed. “I’m fine, I swear.” No one besides the Brooklyn Pack knew what I’d done. Even though I trusted Cas, I couldn’t tell him. Biting humans was taboo, and I wasn’t ready for him to look at me differently.
The door to Lieutenant Owens Briggs’s office flew open, making our gazes snap in that direction as his short, bulky form stomped out of his office. He was red faced, his bald head shining under the fluorescent lights, and you could practically see steam spewing out of his ears.
“Who the hell brought in Maximos Limogiannis?” he yelled in the squad room.
Cas and I looked at one another and then I looked at Michaels, who was mid-bite with his sandwich, eyes wide.
I stood from my desk uneasily and took a couple steps toward Briggs. “I did. What’s the problem?”
Michaels swallowed quickly and hurried to my side. “We did. He was obstructing an investigation.”
Briggs growled loudly and reached for his head as if he had hair he wanted to pull. I had to smash my lips tightly to hold in my laughter.
“Cut him loose! Now!” he shouted so loud you could hear him from New Jersey.
I stepped forward. “But why? We did everything right—”
“I said, cut him loose! Right this second! No buts!” he screamed before storming back into his office and slamming the door, making the glass windows rattle. We all jumped from the force.
My gaze snapped back to my team and we just looked at each other, knowing exactly what had happened. There were rumors of corruption throughout the higher-ups of the SIU, rumors of them giving special treatment to The Third Eye, letting them get away with a laundry list of crimes. This was proof.
Finn cleared his throat. “Don’t worry, I’ll let him go.” Without another word, he left the squad room and headed to the interrogation room while we were left to look at one another.
“This is bullshit,” Michaels breathed, breaking the silence.
“What are you thinking, Grey?” Cas looked at me warily.
I didn’t answer. I turned back to Briggs’s office and watched it from behind the blinds. I’d hoped to stay under the radar, but after today, maybe I should make a little noise.
After what felt like the longest day ever, I finally took the train out of Manhattan and back to Brooklyn. This was the only thing I didn’t like about my new living arrangement—the commute to work. It meant I had to wake up earlier and come home later, but I was getting used to it, I guess. I’d only been doing it for a couple weeks since I got back on the team, but it was getting easier.
I passed the Compound and went around the corner to our brownstone where I unlocked the door, locked it behind me, and dropped my bag by the door. The smell of garlic was heavy in the air and I followed my nose to the kitchen. Standing in front of the stove was my brother, Oliver Grey, wearing an apron over his clothes and stirring a pot of pasta.
“Hey,” I said, trying not to startle him since his back was to me.
He looked over his shoulder at me and smiled. “Hey, sis. How was work?”
I blew out a breath. “Rough day. Not really a pleasant topic. How was your day?”
After stirring the pasta, he put the wooden spoon to the side and turned to fully face me. “I spent the day with Sebastian. He’s upstairs taking a shower. We went for a run in the park.”
“A run?” I raised a brow.
He nodded. “It seems I have a lot of excess energy to prepare for my first shift.”
“Are you taking the tonic Waldo gave you?” I asked, knowing it hurt him, but that he needed it to make the shift less painful.
Ollie grimaced. “Yeah, I take it first thing in the morning to get it out of the way.”
I turned away from him then, because looking at Ollie broke my heart. Recently, the more I stared at him, the more I saw our differences. The only similarity we ever really had was our eyes and maybe our hair color, but our features were so different. I never really noticed before, but maybe it was because I didn’t want to. Even so, he was still my brother and I loved him no matter what our DNA said. Which was why the knowledge of what I did to him hurt so much. From the outside, it seemed like he was fine, but I knew him better than that. He always bottled everything up, but I was pretty sure he was freaking out on the inside.
“Have you spoken to Mom and Dad?” I asked as I went to go wash my hands at the kitchen sink.
“Yeah, they want us to come home soon. I was able to get us out of dinner this weekend for obvious reasons.” Left unspoken was, Because I’ll be shifting for the first time. “But the following weekend, we might have to take a trip to Cold Springs.”
I nodded. “I can get the time off work, that’s not a problem.”
Ollie gently took hold of my arm and turned me around to face him. “Kenz, I’m not mad at you, so don’t be mad at yourself.”
I couldn’t look him in the eyes, so I dropped my gaze to the floor. He tugged on my arm.
“Kenzie, stop it. This isn’t ideal, but it happened. Let’s make the best of it.”
My gaze snapped to his. “The best of it? There’s nothing good about this!”
“You mean to tell me you’re unhappy with the way you are?” he asked.
I scoffed. “I didn’t say that. I just—this life is dangerous. I didn’t want this for you.” What I really wanted to say was that anyone connected to me was in danger, but I didn’t want to scare him or make him even more protective of me than he already was. If – or more like when – people found out he was my brother, they could use him against me as leverage. I would do anything for him, which put me in a very difficult situation and him in a dangerous one.
He kissed me on the forehead. “I know danger, Kenz. Don’t worry about me.” Ollie let me go and went back to cooking dinner.
I left the kitchen, not bothering to argue, and dragged myself upstairs to my bedroom. The shower wasn’t running anymore, so I knew Bash would be coming out soon.
I threw myself on our bed, crossed my feet at the ankles, and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, scrolling through my messages. There was one from Alexander that he sent thirty minutes ago reminding me to call him. I sighed, realizing there was no point holding out any longer.
Pressing his name, I hit the call button and the phone started to ring. After two rings, he answered.
“Mackenzie!” he announced in his thick Scottish brogue. “Why have ye nae answered my calls? Is everything okay?”
In that moment, Bash walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He gave me a questioning look.
“Everything is fine, Alexander,” I responded pointedly. Bash nodded in understanding and continued to walk around our bedroom to his dresser to pull out clean clothes.
“It’s been weeks since ye called me, darling. Ye know I worry.”
I gnawed on my bottom lip, wondering how I would bring Ollie up in conversation. “I know, Alexander. I’m sorry, I’ve just been dealing with a lot lately—”
“Does this have to do with yer job, Mackenzie? I called them—”
“No! It doesn’t, you did great. I got my job back and I’ve been working. It has nothing to do with that.”
I hated using the MacCoinnich name to get special privileges, but Briggs had insisted I use it while I was on administrative leave from the Supernatural Investigative Unit. Alexander called the higher-ups at the SIU and pulled some strings for me to get my job back. Even though he didn’t want me working, especially in this profession, he knew it made me happy and was willing to threaten them to make it happen.
“That’s good, darling. I’m glad everything worked out.” He sounded so genuine. Alexander would lasso the moon and bring it down for me if I really wanted it. It was wh
y I hated disappointing him.
“Alexander,” I whispered into the phone, “I’m so sorry.” I closed my eyes as if he were right in front of me and could see the shame on my face.
“What’s wrong?” he said softly.
“I don’t deserve the crown. Is there anyone else who can inherit it? A cousin, maybe? Please,” I begged.
There was silence on the phone line, and for a moment, I thought I’d lost the connection. I opened my eyes and Bash had dressed himself in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and was sitting at the foot of the bed. His piercing blue eyes were on me, but his neutral expression meant I couldn’t gauge his thoughts.
“Mackenzie,” Alexander said carefully, “if yer nae anointed Queen, the MacCoinnich family loses the crown. I know yer nae ready now, but what has ye so scared?”
I brought my knees to my chest and rested my forehead on them. “I did something you’re not going to like, Alexander. It was a mistake. I did it to save a life, it was unavoidable, but it happened. I didn’t even realize what happened until afterward. It wasn’t my intention.”
“What did ye do, Mackenzie?” he said sternly.
“I bit my brother.”
“Bloody hell,” he breathed into the phone. Before I could respond, Bash snatched my cell phone from me.
“Your Highness, it’s Sebastian Steel,” he said, turning his back to me as he started to pace the room. “Please let me explain to you what happened.”
I could listen in on their conversation, but I didn’t really want to. Alexander wasn’t mad. He didn’t get mad at me, but he was disappointed, and that was infinitely worse. I almost wished he would scream at me and get it over with. I was a walking, talking, PR nightmare.
Bash went into great detail on what had happened with Bobby Wu. I didn’t expect him to tell him that part, so it caught me off guard. But he told him how the warlock and I were bound together, and how Bobby kidnapped Ollie because he’d been following me around. How Bobby compelled Ollie to jump out of a tree to try and force me to shift back to human so he could control me, and then how while in wolf form, I latched onto him to stop him from falling, which meant I bit him. Honestly, I didn’t mean to, I just didn’t want my brother to fall.
Bash and Alexander went back and forth for about fifteen minutes before Bash passed me the phone again.
“Hello?” I answered tremulously.
“Mackenzie,” Alexander voiced so calmly, I couldn’t get a read on his mood, “I’m flying out to America this weekend. Sebastian said ye can have me in yer home.”
My eyes widened and I looked at Bash. “Alexander, you don’t have to come here—”
“It’s time for a visit. I’ll see ye soon, darling,” he said more softly. The call ended and I looked down at my phone, dumbfounded.
“Bash, how could you?” I peered up at him. He stood at the end of the bed with his arms crossed over his chest.
“He needed to know what’s been going on with you, Mackenzie. He never would’ve understood how Oliver got bit any other way.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make!” I yelled, my eyes wild. I took a deep breath, trying to control myself and settle down. “I would have told him,” I added more calmly.
Bash tilted his head. “No, you wouldn’t have, but that’s okay. I think it’s good that he’ll be here. You need to spend more time with him.”
I smashed my lips together, trying to hold in the outburst that surely wanted to explode from me. Yeah, I wanted to spend time with Alexander, but under better circumstances. It felt almost like he was being forced to come discipline me.
“I’m not a child, Sebastian. Stop treating me like one.” I stood from the bed and started to make my way out of the bedroom.
“Hey, wait a second.” He grabbed my hand as I started to stomp past. “That wasn’t my intention, Mackenzie. I’m sorry.”
I peered up at Bash and his features softened. “Let’s just go eat dinner,” I mumbled and walked out of the room.
He didn’t immediately follow me, and I was glad. I didn’t want him hovering like a helicopter parent. One of the personality quirks that Bash still worked on was his protectiveness and how far he took it. I knew he meant well, which was why I tried not to blow up every time he did it, but it wasn’t easy. Especially when it involved Alexander. That was my business, and I should be responsible for it, not him.
3
The week went by fast, and Michaels and I were lucky to only get a verbal warning at work after arresting Maximos. If it wasn’t because I had family obligations, I’d be all over that and trying to figure out what the hell happened. But that would have to wait.
Ollie and I sat in the backseat of Bash’s SUV as we entered Cadwell Estate and drove down the three-mile, winding road that led to the house. My brother’s face was plastered to the window as he watched the wolves that raced beside the car as they escorted us to the house. I reached over to his car door and lowered his window so he could breathe in the fresh air of the woods. We were in over a hundred acres of terrain. It had rained recently, and I took a deep breath and smelled it in the air.
“This is where I’m shifting?” Ollie turned to look at me with expectant eyes.
I grimaced. “Not exactly.”
Since this was Ollie’s first shift and it wasn’t natural, it had to be contained. He wouldn’t be shifting with the rest of the Pack out on the land, he would be in the cage—the silver cage—heavily sedated and weakened so he wouldn’t feel the pain as much. The tonics Waldo made before he left were intended to prepare his body for this, but even so the pain would be ten times worse than when a wolf was moon bound. During this shift, he would feel excruciating pain as his bones rearranged to accept their new form, since he wasn’t born to shift into a wolf.
I hated that he was forced to go through all this pain, but I vowed to be with him through it all. I wasn’t shifting tonight so I could stay with Ollie. If not, he would be alone, and I didn’t want that for him. He didn’t deserve that.
We pulled up to the house and there were already people milling around, half-dressed and getting ready to start bonfires and barbecues. Ollie and I exited the car from our respective sides and met at the back of the SUV. Bash and Jackson got out and headed inside to talk to Charles and get the basement ready.
“I’m nervous,” Ollie admitted as he peered around the woods, taking it all in.
I craned my neck and stared at him. “I’d be surprised if you weren’t.” I reached for his hand. “I’ll be with you every step of the way. We’ll do this together.”
He looked down at me. “Don’t you have to shift, too?”
I shook my head. “Not tonight. I will tomorrow. Tonight, it’s all about you and getting you through the night.”
He gulped and his hands started to get clammy. “Kenz, if I don’t make it—”
“Don’t say that! You’re going to be fine. You survived the Middle East; you can do anything.”
He snorted. “This is on a whole other level, Kenzie, and you know it.”
There was a ponderous silence between us, and I couldn’t respond to him because he was right. This was a different beast. But I had all the faith in the world that he’d make it out. He had to. I couldn’t imagine a world without Ollie in it.
“Mackenzie!” Bash called from the top step of the estate.
I turned to him. “Yeah?”
“It’s ready.”
I swallowed loudly and squeezed Ollie’s hand. The sun wasn’t due to set for a few more hours, but we needed to prepare.
As Bash led us inside the mansion, I looked at the surroundings with fresh eyes. It still felt like walking into a museum with priceless objects scattered around and expensive art on the walls. We followed Bash down an Oriental rug-blanketed hallway that brought back dark memories of the night the Lunas were massacred and I found V’s lifeless body lying halfway in the corridor. I shut my eyes to block the images of blood-splattered walls and floors and continued down the ha
ll until we reached the door at the end that led to the basement where I was once held.
We walked down the stairs and my eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room. At the far end of the room by the wall was the silver cage. It was large enough for a wolf to roam around in wolf form, but definitely not run.
In the middle of the room was a table with a couple bottles of liquid I recognized as the tonics Waldo had given Ollie when he was first bitten. It was what my brother had been taking every day since to get his body accustomed to the change, but I knew it would still be extremely painful.
I could still hear his screams from that day.
Bash looked at his watch. “In an hour or so, give him the first tonic, but make sure he’s in the cage already. Be careful, Mackenzie. You’ll feel the effects of the cage as well.”
“I understand. This isn’t my first time down here.”
His brows furrowed. “Even so, be careful. Once Oliver begins to shift, he’ll be volatile. He could hurt you unintentionally. It’s why this part is meant to be done alone.”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving him.”
“Kenz, you don’t have to stay—” Ollie started, but I cut him off.
“I’m staying. End of discussion.” I held up my hands to shut everyone up. “I know what to do, Bash.”
He nodded and came over to me, placing a soft kiss on my forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Bash left and it was just me and my brother—and a silver cage.
The first hour dragged on as we waited for the inevitable, but when the time came, Ollie stripped down to his boxers and stepped inside the cage. I could see the bite mark I gave him on his shoulder and knew he would carry that mark for the rest of his life as a reminder of what he was.
When he was ready, I grabbed the tonic bottles and joined him inside the cage. I felt the effects of the silver immediately and stumbled, wavering on my feet as I settled the bottles and lined them up by the bars so we had easy access to them. I took one and met Ollie in the center of the cage.
Stolen Relics Page 2
