by Lisa Edmonds
“That those you love and trust can and will turn against you,” he said quietly. “And people will commit great evil and call it justice.”
We climbed the steps to the veranda. Sean and Bryan watched us pass as we walked to the table, where the cup and my wineglass waited. Charles picked up the cup and regarded it.
I stole another glance at my watch. Nine minutes before the spell would break. My stomach churned as the seconds ticked by and the vampire made no move to return to the house.
Finally, Charles held the cup out. Return this to your client, he said in my head. Take it far from me and never tell me who possesses it.
Why? I asked, stunned.
Because I think I have come to understand what Niara was attempting to tell me when I was too stubborn to hear her words. I have walked in the sun and remembered what it was like to be human. I will never be human. If I were to use this cup again, I believe I might not return to the safety of my home before the hour ended.
My stomach contracted. You wouldn’t commit suicide by sunlight, Charles. I know you.
He smiled without humor. You do not know me, Alice. Never presume to know what is in my heart. Take the cup away.
I can’t repay the sixty-five grand, I reminded him.
This hour with you has been repayment enough. He kissed my cheek, startling me with the warmth of his usually cool lips. I feel the pull of sleep. My stolen hour is almost gone.
I took the cup. This use had depleted its magic, but it would regenerate. My fingers brushed his and he paused, savoring the moment.
Finally, Charles released my hand and went inside. I followed, but he’d already vanished into the recesses of Niara’s mansion. Somewhere in the house, a heavy door closed and locked.
Sean came inside and picked up the wooden box. I nestled the cup in its velvet-lined interior and closed the lid. I looked up at him.
He used his thumb to wipe the single tear off my cheek. “Let’s go home.”
12
Adri drove us home. Sean contacted Mobile Team One, Jack and Karen, and gave them our ETA. He’d put his shoulder rig back on and we both wore our bulletproof vests again. I was too tired and emotionally drained to waste energy thinking about how uncomfortable I was. Our drive was silent.
When we pulled into my driveway, Jack and Karen were already parked in front of my house. Sean gave the mobile team a wave and escorted me inside. He locked the door behind us as Adri backed down the driveway and I tossed my vest in the coat closet.
While he let the dog in and checked the doors and windows, I took the cup down to the basement and put it in the cabinet with the hand mirror.
Back upstairs, I stifled a grimace as I sat on the couch and called Aaron Riddell. My back and knee ached mercilessly.
“I have good news,” I told the attorney when he came on the line. “I’ve got two out of three. The cup and the hand mirror are in my hands.”
“Two days and two down. I knew you were the best in the business,” Aaron said. I could hear the smile in his voice. “You sound kind of rough. Did you have to get them the hard way?”
“You don’t really want any details, do you?”
“No, I do not, but if you end up needing legal representation—”
“—I’ll have to call someone else. There’s no way I’d be able to afford your rates.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure I could offer you a discount. And what about item number three?”
Sean came downstairs and headed for the kitchen, still wearing his all-black enforcer clothes. My eyes followed him. Yum.
“Alice?” Aaron prodded.
“Yes?” I shook myself as Sean disappeared into the kitchen. “Yes, sorry, I was distracted.” I heard him pouring dog food into Rogue’s bowl.
“You’ll let me know as soon as you have any news on the cuff?”
“Yep. You’ll be the first to know as soon as I’ve got it.”
“Great. I’ll let my client know about your success. I’m sure she’ll be very happy to hear it.”
We said our goodbyes.
Sean stuck his head out of the kitchen. “Do you want coffee?”
I shook my head. “I’m recovered enough to release Malcolm from my bracelet and check him for hidden spells. Once that’s done, I’m going to finish healing myself and take a nap for a few hours.”
He came into the living room and sat on the couch next to me. “Are you all right?”
I hesitated. “How much did you hear of what Charles was telling me?”
“Very little. I did hear the last bit about learning a couple of lessons.”
I stared in the direction of the fireplace. “He told me how, when, and why he was turned.”
“Oh.” He put his hand on my thigh and squeezed. “It wasn’t a happy story, I take it. Those stories seldom are.” Something about the tone of his voice made me look up. His eyes were haunted.
Though I’d never asked Sean if he’d been born a werewolf or been bitten, I’d assumed the latter, and the way he spoke more or less confirmed it.
Sean figured out what I was thinking. “I will tell you, Alice,” he said quietly. “You only have to ask.”
I read his expression and knew it wasn’t the right time. “I want to hear the story, but it can wait until another day,” I told him, leaning over to give him a quick kiss.
When I sat back, I shook my head. “One thing I have to remember is that no matter what stories he tells me, he’s still Charles Vaughan of the Vampire Court. I can’t forget either where his loyalties lie or that he’s dangerous. He never does anything without a reason. If he told me that story—assuming any of it is true—he did it because he thinks it was to his advantage to do so.”
“That’s my Alice,” Sean teased, lifting my hand and pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “You never allow sentiment to cloud your vision. It’s one of the things I love most about you.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” I countered, while my stomach did a somersault and then tied itself into a pretzel. “I feel like I’ve let Charles pull the wool over my eyes a couple of times. Maybe I’ve finally learned from those mistakes, though.” I started to push myself to my feet.
Sean rose and pulled me up carefully to minimize the strain on my sore back. I rested my forehead against his chest.
He hadn’t said he loved me; he said there were things about me he loved. It wasn’t much of a difference, but I wondered if he was trying out the word to see how I would react.
There was love in the way he cared for me when I was hurt, the way he both protected and supported me in front of his pack, the way my well-being and happiness were essential for his own. There was love in everything he did.
He hadn’t come out and said it, but I was pretty sure he loved me. Did I love him? Did I even know what love felt like? I remembered loving my parents, but that was a long time ago, and not the same kind of love. Was I even capable of loving someone? I hoped I was, but I was very much afraid that I couldn’t.
He kissed the top of my head. “You’re awfully quiet all of a sudden.”
“I got lost in thought.” I gave him a quick squeeze and headed for the basement door. “I’m going downstairs to check on Malcolm. It might take a little while.”
“Alice.”
I paused with my hand on the doorknob. “What’s up?”
“I understand why you need those wards on your basement and why you haven’t granted me passage through them.” His eyes glowed. “I’m not asking you to change that, but I want you to know if you get hurt down there or I think you’re in danger, I’m coming through those wards.”
He wouldn’t get through them, but he wouldn’t let that keep him from trying. He’d fight them until he was either unconscious or dead.
I’d been thinking of my basement as some kind of retreat or escape and not from Sean’s perspective. To him, it was a source of worry and that worst of emotions for an alpha: helplessness. It must have been gnawing on him constantly since we�
��d gotten back together, and the close call with the blood mage had made it impossible for him to stay quiet anymore. He was probably imagining what might happen if someone else tried to take Malcolm and I ended up unconscious or worse and he couldn’t get to me.
I couldn’t do that to him. As much as I needed my own space and a place to retreat, it didn’t have be locked to him. In fact, it shouldn’t be.
“Come give me your hand,” I said softly.
“Alice—”
“Sean, give me your hand.”
He joined me at the door. I traced four runes on the doorframe and the wards hummed. As I had done once before, I took his hand and drew two more runes with our index fingers. The wards chimed as magic ran through us.
“They feel powerful,” he said. “I wish I could see them.”
“I can show them to you.” I placed my palm on the doorframe and suspended the obfuscation spells, revealing the wards.
Sean caught his breath.
Hundreds of layers of wards appeared, colorful and neon-bright: white air magic, green earth magic, and purple, red, and black blood magic, interwoven in seemingly endless chains of runes and spells that ran along the walls, floor, and ceiling of the basement.
As we watched, a golden thread—Sean’s shifter trace—snaked its way along the existing wards, weaving itself through the spellwork until it was visible throughout, permitting him to enter the basement unharmed.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, looking over the wards in awe. “This is a masterpiece. You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever known.”
I took my hand off the doorway and the wards vanished, once again hidden by their powerful obfuscation spells. “You are welcome in the basement, but don’t come down unannounced in case I’m doing spellwork or if I’m down there because I need alone time. You remember what to touch down there and what not to?”
“I remember.” He took me in his arms and held me. “Thank you. This means a lot to me.”
“It means a lot to me too.” I kissed him, then reached for the doorknob. “I’m going to let Malcolm out and check him for spells. I’ll be back upstairs when that’s done.”
“Let me know if you need me.” He let go of my hand and headed for the kitchen. “In the meantime, I’m going to make an omelet for breakfast. I’ll make yours when you’re done.”
“Thanks.” I hesitated. “I love the way you make omelets.”
He paused at the doorway to the kitchen and turned around. His grin made my heart skip a beat.
Smiling, I opened the basement door, pushed through the wards, and headed downstairs.
Since I didn’t know whether Malcolm still had any of those retrieval spells hidden in him, I spent a good twenty minutes drawing runes and turning the three inlaid concentric circles into a fortress that even a team of blood mages wouldn’t be able to get through.
When I charged the circles, the power level made my hair stick out. I took a deep breath, exhaled, and touched the blue crystal on my bracelet. “Release.”
Malcolm popped into existence, his eyes wide and full of panic. He saw me, flitted back, and hit the inner circle, which zapped him and sent a bolt of magic back into me. He bounced away from the circle and flitted around me in a whirlwind.
“Malcolm, it’s okay,” I said, trying to keep track of him as he moved. “It’s okay. We’re in my basement. No one’s going to take you.”
He stopped as suddenly as he’d appeared, flickering with anger. “What the hell, Alice?” he yelled.
I blinked at him. “What did I do?”
“What did you do?” Malcolm moved as far from me as he could within the small circle. He’d gone from panicked to furious in record time. “You caged me in blood magic and ripped a spell out of me!”
“You were trying to get away—”
“From the blood magic! Which is how I died, if you’ll recall, so I’m a little edgy about it!”
“—and if I hadn’t gotten that spell out of you, they would have taken you and I would have probably died, and you’d be in a crystal at Bell’s cabal like all the other ghosts!”
“Like all the other…? What other ghosts?” Malcolm floated back and forth in confusion. “Wait, whose clothes are those? Why is your face all bruised? How long have I been in your bracelet?”
I hesitated. “Don’t get mad.”
Malcolm’s irritation buzzed on my skin. “Alice, when you say that, I feel like I will probably have a good reason to be mad.”
I sighed. “It’s been about thirty-six hours since the attack.”
“Thirty-six hours?”
“A really crazy thirty-six hours.”
He closed his eyes, appeared to count to ten, then reopened them. “Okay, let’s hear it.”
I told him about the attacks on mages, my theory that Bell had pulled back all his bound ghosts, our outing to find the mirror, my dinner with the pack, the auction, Vincent Barclay’s attack, our visit to Niara’s mansion, and Charles’s walk in the sun. Malcolm listened with varying levels of anger, disbelief, sympathy, shock, and surprise.
When I finished, he was quiet. “Is that all?” he asked finally, his tone dry.
I rubbed my forehead. “I intended to take you out of the bracelet last night after dinner with the pack, but then Charles called about the auction.”
“It’s okay.” Malcolm’s anger had faded. “You did what you had to do under the circumstances. Thank you for not letting me end up back at the cabal, stuck in a crystal for all eternity. Also, I’m glad you’re not dead.”
“Hey, me too. Speaking of which, I need to make sure you don’t have any more of those spells hidden in you.”
He floated back and forth nervously. “How are you going to do that?”
“There’s only one way. I need to search by hand.”
He flitted back to the far side of the circle. “Alice…please.”
“There’s no other way. Neither you or I sensed the one that almost got you the other night. The only way to be sure there aren’t more of those spells hidden in you is for me to look really, really closely. You know I’m right.”
“I know,” he said miserably. “It’s not that I feel pain, exactly, but it’s like I’m being cut open over and over again.”
I hated that I had no choice but to do this to him. “I’ll wait until you’re ready,” I promised.
He floated over to me. “Can you talk and search at the same time?”
“Yes. What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me more about your dinner with Sean’s pack.”
“Okay.” I rolled my shoulders. “Let me know when you’re ready.”
“Just do it.”
I started at his feet, passing my hands slowly through his non-corporeal form, my shields down and senses wide open, searching for any trace of another hidden spell.
I talked as I worked, describing my visit to Cole and Karen’s house, the surprise visit by Jack, Delia, and Caleb, Jack’s hostility, Sean’s statement that he hoped I might be his mate, and the snow globe I’d been given. Malcolm shuddered as I passed my hands through his body, but didn’t make a sound.
I found two more hidden spells, one of which was another retrieval spell. Since I had the luxury of time, I unwove it instead of tearing it out. When I finished, the spell dissipated in a puff of blood magic.
The second spell gave me pause.
It wasn’t a retrieval spell; it was the spell that bound Malcolm to me. I’d theorized to Sean that Bell had found a way to have his ghosts bound to high-level mages in the area, but Malcolm had been bound to me specifically. When he’d first manifested in my office, he’d told me he’d been assigned to haunt me because of my past. The spell that bound us wasn’t made of blood magic. The magic was silver—afterlife magic—and nothing on this plane of existence had made it. I could not unweave or break it, since that kind of magic was beyond even my abilities.
Strangely, the spellwork contained an element I couldn�
��t identify. I sifted through the magic until I figured it out. The spell wasn’t permanent; there was a condition that, once it was met, would free Malcolm and me from each other. What that condition was, I couldn’t tell. I wondered if Malcolm knew, but this didn’t seem like the time to ask.
“Alice?” he asked, his voice hollow. “Are you finished?”
“I’m finished.” I raised my shields and withdrew my hands. They were bluish with cold and almost numb. “I found another retrieval spell and the spell that binds you to me. Other than that, I’m pretty sure you’re free of hidden spells.”
“Okay. Can you break the circles, please?”
I’d never seen him so subdued. There was no snark, no sarcastic quip, not even a smirk. I hesitated to use the word, but he looked…haunted.
I dropped the circles and he floated toward the steps. “I need to go out for a while and clear my head,” he told me. “Is that okay?”
“Take as much time as you need. If something comes up, I’ll summon you.” I paused. “I’d break our binding and free you if I could.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want you to. If I have to be a bound ghost, I want to be bound to you. I need some space right now, that’s all.”
I didn’t know what to say to make him feel better, so I just said, “Okay.”
He vanished. My house wards tingled as he crossed them.
With a heavy heart, I cleaned up the runes I’d drawn in the circles, then slowly climbed the stairs, enduring stabbing pains in my back and knee with each step.
When I opened the basement door, I found Sean sitting on the couch. He took one look at my face and put his phone down. “What’s wrong?”
“I found another of those spells in Malcolm.” I pulled the door closed and headed for the stairs. “I got rid of it and he’s clean of spells now, as far as I can tell. He needed some alone time after we finished, so he went out for a while.”
Sean met me at the foot of the steps. “Let me make you breakfast. I’ve got everything ready. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
