by Lisa Edmonds
I heard Sean telling Jack over the radio that I was fine. They’d apparently seen me go down and wondered what had happened.
Malcolm’s cold hand touched my shoulder. How long has it been since you used a ley line?
I took a deep breath. Too long. I need to practice more often.
Yeah, you do. You don’t want to be in a situation where you need to tap a line and you can’t do it. He took his hand off my shoulder.
“I’m all right,” I said out loud as Sean came to stand next to me. My voice sounded a little wispy, but my head was clear.
“So that was a three?” he asked mildly, offering me a hand.
“Actually, yes.” I pulled myself to my feet and gave him a quick smile to show I was okay. “The wards packed a little more of a punch than I expected, but the circle held without any trouble and now we can get into the unit.”
“Without getting fried,” Malcolm added.
“Thank you for helping us with the wards,” Sean said. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Sorry I needed some space.”
“Don’t apologize,” I told the ghost. “You can take some ‘me’ time whenever you need to. You mind sticking around? I’m not sure what we’re going to find in there.”
“Yeah, no problem. I got no place to be.” Malcolm grinned at me and I smiled back.
Sean and I pulled on another pair of black latex gloves. He used the key we’d found to unlock the padlock. “Let’s get in here and see what’s what.” He took the radio from his belt. “Going to check out the unit. Keep an eye out for visitors.”
“Ten-four,” Jack said briskly.
Sean raised the door halfway and we slipped inside. He found the light switch by the door and flipped it before rolling the door back down to hide us from anyone passing by.
The unit was about ten feet by ten feet and nearly full. Boxes of various sizes, all marked with runes, filled three tall metal shelves. A half-dozen large paintings wrapped in paper were stacked against the wall.
“This is the tidiest storage unit I’ve ever seen,” Sean said, surveying the room. “Malcolm, do you sense any more wards?”
“Not from here, but you guys stay where you are and I’ll do a more thorough search.”
We waited by the door while Malcolm floated around, checking every inch of the storage unit. Finally, he came back to us. “No more wards I can sense,” he reported. “Most of the boxes are spelled, but they should be pretty easy to unweave. Some of the boxes have containment spells, though, which means whatever is in them could go kaboom if we’re not careful.”
I pursed my lips. “Well, I don’t want to open any of those boxes. There’s no telling what’s in them and I have no desire to blow up the building.”
“So what’s the plan?” Sean asked.
“See if we can find the cuff, I guess,” I said. “Then we have a choice of whether to just leave things where they are and let the situation sort itself out, or tip off SPEMA about a cache of magical objects and let them look for John Doe.”
“You could sell them to Charles,” Malcolm said, half-jokingly.
I shook my head. “I’m not getting into the stolen magical objects trade. There are others hunting for these items and not all of them play nice. All I’m taking out of here is the cuff if we can find it.”
“It’s probably not in one of the containment boxes, so I’ll start unweaving the spells on the other ones,” Malcolm said. “Some of them have blood ward locks, so I’ll start with those since it’s safer for me to unweave them than you.”
We went to work as Sean watched. While Malcolm focused on unweaving blood ward locks, I looked through the boxes that just had simple masking spells designed to hide the magic trace of their contents.
In the third box I opened, I found a bracelet that matched the lust-spell necklace Dora Quinn had shown me at Walsh & Quinn.
“That wench is selling all kinds of stolen goods,” I fumed, showing Sean the bracelet. “I’m starting to think half the stuff in that shop was obtained in the same way she got Esther’s hand mirror.”
“Maybe we should drop a dime to SPEMA about the shop,” Sean said.
“Maybe we should.” I closed the box and put it back on the shelf before opening the next one.
Not all of the boxes housed magical objects; some contained antiques and jewelry. I checked to see if any of it belonged to Esther. If I managed to recover any of her missing jewelry, maybe she’d bump up that bonus. To my disappointment, none of it matched the photos of Esther’s stolen pieces.
The pieces in the boxes with the blood ward locks were more expensive magical items. The boxes with containment spells had me worried; some of them might pack a wallop and I had no way of knowing what was in them. By the time I finished looking in all the boxes on the first and second shelving units, I’d decided we had to tip SPEMA off about this stash before those items fell into the wrong hands.
I was beginning to think we were going to come up empty in our search for Esther’s cuff when I opened a medium-sized box and whooped. “Got it!”
“Excellent.” Sean joined me and examined the cuff. It was about four inches wide and made of what looked like hammered brass. The edges were lined with runes, the fire magic spellwork that gave its wearer the extra zip that Esther and her husband had apparently enjoyed.
Sean’s thoughts must have mirrored my own. “Maybe we should take this for a test drive before you give it back to your client,” he said with a wink.
“You don’t need any help in the virility department,” I told him, patting his butt affectionately. “If you had any more sex drive, it might literally kill me. I can barely keep up with you as it is.”
“Oh my God, you two. Get a room,” Malcolm complained. He’d stopped unweaving blood ward locks when I found the cuff and was now floating by the door.
“I plan to.” Sean grinned. “Alice and I are going to have a lot to celebrate once she gets this stuff back to her client. I can’t believe Aldridge was willing to pay five or six grand for this thing. It sure doesn’t look like much, does it?” He reached for the cuff.
It happened faster than any of us could react. As soon as Sean’s fingers got near the cuff, it flipped and closed around his right forearm with a flare of magic.
He snarled and tried to pull the cuff off with his other hand, but it had closed completely around his wrist without even leaving a visible seam.
Magic pulsed from the cuff and each wave was stronger than the last. Sean staggered and grabbed the shelving unit for support as he went down. The shelf fell over, sending boxes crashing to the floor.
Whatever the cuff was doing to Sean, it sure as hell had nothing to do with his libido. He was on his hands and knees, his muscles straining as if he was fighting something. When I heard joints popping, I realized he was trying not to shift. It had to be agonizing.
“Alice, get this thing off me,” he growled.
“Hold still,” I told him. My earth magic spiraled out of my hand and formed a short, thin whip. I lashed the cuff with the power and precision of someone who’d been practicing that skill her entire life.
The cuff should have split instantly. Instead, a backlash of magic traveled up my whip and punched me in the chest so hard that my heart stuttered. The blast knocked the wind out of me and sent me crashing to my knees.
As I went down, Malcolm zipped to Sean and tried to unweave the spells on the cuff. The moment he made contact with the spells, a powerful flare of magic disrupted his form.
“No,” I gasped as he fractured before my eyes. I’d never seen magic affect a ghost that way. “Malcolm!”
He vanished. Fear gripped me until I recognized the tingle of magic as the spell he used to jump back to one of the crystals in my basement. He would be protected there and hopefully regenerate and heal whatever damage the cuff had done to him.
“Get…Jack,” Sean ground out, his eyes bright gold. His voice was more than half growl.
As I reac
hed for the radio on his belt, the rolling door was yanked up so quickly that I heard metal bending.
Jack appeared in the doorway, framed by sunlight. He must have sensed trouble through the pack bonds. He slammed the door back down and crouched at Sean’s side. “What happened?”
“The cuff—” I began.
“I wasn’t asking you,” Jack snarled.
He grabbed the cuff with both hands, attempting to tear it apart, but was knocked back by a burst of magic. The damn thing was warded against magic and physical force. What the hell was that thing?
Sean was growling now, his eyes golden as he fought to stay human. “Lead…the…pack,” he ordered Jack. “Protect…Alice. Even…from me.”
“I will,” Jack said. “Shift now before resisting it kills you.”
Sean looked at me, his eyes almost full wolf. There was no fear in them, only anger and pain. I wanted to take the pain from him, but I couldn’t and it was breaking my heart.
“I will get the cuff off you,” I promised him.
He held his human form for one more second, and then he shifted with the sound of bones popping and a pulse of golden magic.
Sean’s wolf was enormous, black and silver with golden eyes. I’d hoped that when he shifted the cuff would fall off, but instead it appeared to have changed sizes so that now it fit snugly on the wolf’s front leg.
My thoughts raced. Clearly, the cuff was much more than a libido-enhancing accessory. Perhaps that was its effect when worn by a human, but its effect on a shifter was dramatic.
“Sean?” I asked tentatively.
The wolf lowered his head and growled softly, his eyes on me. Sean had told me that though the wolf was in the driver’s seat when he was in wolf form, he was aware of everything that was going on and could speak to the wolf.
Jack turned on me, his eyes bright. “What the fuck is that thing on his leg?”
The wolf snarled at him and snapped his teeth. He moved between Jack and me and growled warningly at his beta. The message was clear: back off.
Jack’s demeanor instantly changed. His posture became less aggressive and the glow in his eyes diminished. “I’m not going to attack her,” he said calmly. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened.”
The wolf seemed to not understand what Jack was saying. He bared his teeth, his ears back as if preparing to attack.
“Sean, everything is okay,” I said, trying to make my voice soothing. “Can you hear me? We’re going to help you.”
The wolf stood his ground, watching Jack closely and growling. I started to move around to his side, thinking if he could see my eyes and body language I might be able to communicate better.
The wolf turned his head and snapped his teeth at me. I froze.
In the blink of an eye, Jack pulled out a gun and shot the wolf.
The dart hit the wolf in the neck. He whipped his head around and snarled at Jack, who held his ground as the wolf tried to leap. Instead, his legs went out from under him and he fell.
Stunned, I asked, “Why did you have that gun?”
Jack stuck the gun back in the holster at the small of his back. “It was for Caleb,” he said shortly.
I went to the wolf on my hands and knees. His eyes were half-closed but he managed to look at me. I saw pain, worry, and anger.
I ran my fingers through the wolf’s fur and lowered my forehead to his. “I will get that cuff off you,” I told him again. “Just hang on.”
The wolf let out a tiny, almost imperceptible whine. Then his eyes closed and he went limp.
I laid my head against his side and listened to the steady, slow beating of his heart. He was so warm. I wanted to cry. I wanted to tear something or someone apart. But mostly I wanted to find out what the hell this cuff was and how to get it off him.
Jack pulled his radio from his belt. “Mobile Unit, back our vehicle up to the door and open the back.”
“Ten-four,” Karen replied, her voice strained. I wondered if everyone in the pack could sense what had happened to Sean.
I raised my head. “What are you doing?”
“Taking my alpha somewhere safe, somewhere far away from you.”
I was on my feet before I realized I’d moved. My magic surged and the ground trembled beneath us. “The hell you are.”
His fury was so intense that it scoured my skin like a sandstorm. “That tranquilizer won’t last more than an hour or two, and you have no way of caging a werewolf.”
“I have to get that cuff off of him,” I argued.
“We’ll get the cuff off. If you’re too stupid and weak to do it, we’ll find a mage who can.”
My rage went ice-cold. “I am neither stupid nor weak. I just need time. That cuff is heavily warded, but every spell has counter-spells. Every ward can be broken, eventually.”
Tires crunched outside as Karen backed their SUV up to the rolling door. A door slammed and footsteps approached.
“We’ll find someone who can remove the cuff. It’s no longer of any concern to you.” Jack crouched and picked up the wolf’s unconscious body. “Open the door,” he called to Karen.
As she rolled the door up, I said, “That’s not your decision to make, Jack. Sean and I are a couple whether you like it or not, and his well-being is of great concern to me, as mine is to him.”
“Which is why you’re still in one piece,” Jack snapped. “Now move out of the way.”
“What happened?” Karen asked, her eyes wide and horrified as she watched Jack carry Sean to the open back of the SUV.
“I’ll explain later,” Jack told her, placing the wolf carefully into the cargo area. “You drive the other vehicle and follow me.”
Karen froze. “And leave Alice here alone?”
“I’ll send personnel from Maclin Security to come get her. She can wait here.” Jack shut the back of the SUV.
Karen hesitated, looking at me helplessly.
“Get his phone and radio. We need to go now,” Jack ordered.
“It’s okay,” I told Karen. “Go. I’ll be all right.”
As she bent to pick up Sean’s things, Jack snarled at me. “Don’t give her permission to obey an order. She’s pack.”
“I wasn’t giving her permission; I was reassuring her. There’s a difference.” I approached the open door where Jack was waiting for Karen. “When I figure out how to remove that cuff, I will come for him. Don’t get in my way.”
Karen seemed to shrink as Jack loomed over me. “Are you threatening me?”
The last time Jack and I had squared off, at Karen’s house, Sean had advised me to avoid looking his beta in the eye. It had felt wrong then and it felt wrong now. My gut told me facing him was the only way to show Jack he had no authority over me and never would.
I met his gaze and didn’t back down. “I’m making it clear where we stand. Take it however you want.”
We stared at each other. His hands curled into fists and he made a low growl. Shifter magic rose.
I pushed my blood magic through my fingertips, forming razor-like claws. I kept my hand at my side, but he saw the blades.
Someday, Jack and I might have to settle our differences, but today was not that day. Sean was more important. As much as it rankled me to do so, I took a step back to show that I didn’t want to fight. “Take him somewhere safe.”
Jack turned on his heel and left with Karen behind him. She sent me an apologetic look just before Jack reached up and pulled the door down. He slammed it closed, leaving me alone in the semi-darkness.
Moments later, an engine started and the SUVs drove away.
15
There was so much I needed to do. I had to get home to check on Malcolm. I needed to figure out what the hell the cuff was and how to get it off Sean. Then I’d have to deal with Jack, assuming Sean didn’t kill him outright for leaving me high and dry.
First, in the privacy of John Doe’s storage unit, I sat down on a cardboard box, put my head in my hands, and gave myself exactly
sixty seconds to break down.
In the space of just a few minutes, the ground had been yanked out from under my feet. Malcolm was hurt. Sean was possibly stuck in wolf form as the cuff did God-knew-what to him.
The wolf’s final whine echoed in my ears. I doubted I’d ever forget that sound. I’d only heard it once before: when the demon Ravan broke his ribs while they were fighting in my backyard. Hearing Sean in pain did something to me that I’d never felt before. It made me furious beyond what I would have thought possible. I supposed that was a taste of what Sean felt when he saw me hurt or in danger. I rubbed my face with my hands.
My phone buzzed. I dug it out of my pocket. The caller ID read C Rose Calling. I didn’t recognize the name or number.
Frowning, I answered. “Alice Worth.”
“This is Cyro.” The electronic voice was tense. “What is your status?”
Sean had told me a while back that Cyro’s full pseudonym was Cyanide Rose. That explained the caller ID, though not why he was calling me now.
When I didn’t respond immediately, he spoke again, more urgently. “Ms. Worth? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Why are you calling me?”
“I saw what looked like trouble and the Maclin Security SUVs left without you. What’s going on?”
I blinked. “Were you watching the security cameras?”
“Yes, obviously.” Cyro sounded irritated. “Why is Maclin in wolf form and unconscious, and why did his beta leave you there alone and unprotected?”
“There was a medical emergency and they had to leave.” I didn’t want Cyro involved any more than he already was. “I have someone coming to pick me up.”
“Ms. Worth—”
“I need to make some calls, Cyro,” I told him. “Once I’m gone, please erase the security footage of us being here. I’m going to tip the feds off about what we found in the storage unit and I don’t want anyone to know we were here.”
“Consider it done,” he said briskly. “Do you want me to send an anonymous tip to SPEMA instead so it can’t be traced back to you? No charge.”
