Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser Series) (17 page)

Desmond let out a low whistle. Kandy turned as he lifted the hair off the side and back of my neck. My curls had fallen out of their clip and I hadn’t even noticed.

“That is an impressive bruise,” Desmond said, referencing my neck. Even Kandy looked momentarily impressed. “I haven’t ever seen a bruise like that on a human. Not one alive, anyway.”

I kept quiet. The headache was now pounding at the back of my skull, and I just wasn’t up to bantering.

Kandy’s eyes fell on Desmond’s shoulder and she uttered a short, blunt curse. I looked myself — Desmond had freed my head — and ogled the half-healed chew mark on the bridge between Desmond’s neck and his meaty shoulder. His neck had been savaged, T-shirt and all, so his shirt must have stretched and ripped in places to accommodate his half-beast form. It was a similar enough color to the deep beige of his fur that I missed seeing it.
 

Kandy reached over and extracted a long, broken canine tooth from this bloody wound.

Desmond took the tooth from her and started to laugh. The green-haired wolf growled impatiently and started her pacing game again, only now her track encircled Desmond and me.

The wound on Desmond’s neck sealed as he laughed. He was practically clutching his belly with mirth. I was surprised he was capable of such emotion.

“He found me a difficult meal,” Desmond managed to wheeze. “He just hung on chewing, waiting for me to drop from his damn venom shit. It takes more than that to get me on my back.” The shifter flashed me a grin, and I deliberately ignored the sexual allusion.

Scary venom shit — that was one more check mark in the vampire’s-are-walking-talking-nightmares box.

“It’ll take him time to grow that back,” Kandy said. Satisfaction laced her growl.

Desmond, who was now wiping tears from his eyes, pocketed the tooth. “Blackmail,” he whispered as he winked at me.

I wasn’t impressed. I just wanted to go home and find solace in a fresh batch of double fudge brownies. Desmond dropped his smile and stepped closer to me again. This time he leaned in and actually smelled me. He took a great big sniff just underneath my left ear, then clasped and raised both my hands to his face. He inhaled at my wrists, then pinned me with his gaze again. A green glow rolled over his green-flecked, golden brown eyes. Again, I assumed the glow must have something to do with the shapeshifters accessing their power. Maybe scent this time?

“What are you?”

“We’ve done this dance before. It’s boring,” I answered. I guess I did have some lip left in me.

“You haven’t danced properly with me,” Desmond said, his voice growling low in his chest.

I couldn’t figure out if he thought he was being sexy or flirty or whether he was threatening me. I just sighed and turned my head to fix my gaze over his shoulder. This pissed him off, and I could actually feel his anger rise. But then, that had been my intention.

“You owe me a life debt, half-witch, and I’m about to collect.”

I shuddered as the power laced through those words rolled over me. I shuddered at the thought of owing anything to this man-beast who could command such magic in mere words.

He’d saved my life.

I couldn’t even pretend to dispute it. He could have let the vampire kill me, but he obviously wanted something more from me.

I looked back at him. He was waiting for my acknowledgement. I nodded and felt the magic settle between us. It was a light connection, but it felt heavy to me; I’d never accepted a life debt before. I understood it was a serious binding, fueled and enforced by the magic of the caster — Desmond in this case — and reinforced with my own magic. He didn’t own me or anything but it felt like I’d signed some sort of lease agreement nonetheless.

I knew then that even if he owed it to me, I wouldn’t be collecting such an acknowledgement from the vampire. I didn’t want to play with magic that felt so tangible and terrifying.

My grandmother was going to freak unless I could cancel out the debt before she laid eyes on me.

“What do you want in return?” I asked. I was back to looking over Desmond’s shoulder and attempting to ignore the tug of the bond.

“What? No, thank you for saving your life?”

“You felt the bond seal as surely as I did. That’s thanks enough.” I’d seen that much in the satisfaction that had flitted over his face, before it settled back into its usual grim lines.

“Hudson was my second. He was invaluable. Irreplaceable.”

My eyes flicked to Kandy, who was currently on her guard rounds. If she could hear the conversation, it didn’t seem to interest her.

“Kandy is a warrior. One of my best. And while Hudson could be fearsome, you have to be more than just fearsome to reach and hold the second position. He was a diplomat. Charming, agreeable —”

“Everything you’re not.” I couldn’t help saying it. Desmond scared me.

“Exactly.” He wasn’t insulted easily, it seemed. “I hold you responsible for Hudson’s death. Somehow, being around you called him to the attention of the killer.”

“That’s not fair,” I said as calmly as possible, even as guilty tears threatened the corners of my eyes. “You were already investigating murdered werewolves when I met Hudson.”

“Why do you think he danced with you?” Desmond said with a sneer. “You think a half-witch held any thrill for such as him? Yes, your magic is appealing. Intoxicating in the right circumstances, I suppose. But shifters don’t mate with weak humans.”

“Well, you all keep telling me I’m not human at all, so I guess that wasn’t an issue. Perhaps you didn’t know your precious Hudson as well as you think.”

Anger momentarily edged Desmond’s chiseled features, but was gone as soon as I’d glimpsed it. Which was good, as I’d momentarily forgotten I didn’t want to provoke the beast.

“I can see why the vampire likes you,” Desmond said. “The same won’t apply to me.”

“You prefer your followers with their noses shoved up your ass.”

“You have me completely figured out.”

Desmond bared his teeth at me. I returned the non-smile as he took an aggressive step forward. I didn’t step back. Of course, I was already practically plastered to the concrete wall, so that didn’t mean much. But I didn’t back down.

The metal emergency exit door slammed open. Kett, with a werewolf supported under each arm, wandered out into the alley. The vampire looked completely human for the first time since I’d met him. His skin was practically pink with health, and he was grinning like he’d just had the most amazing orgasm. I instantly wanted to slap the smile from his face — or maybe throw myself at his mercy, I wasn’t sure. The werewolves, Lara and the tall blond whose name I still didn’t know, looked drunk out of their minds, buzz and all.

“Kandy, get them to the car,” Desmond ordered.

She relieved Kett of the burden of the young wolves by coaxing them up the alley. They stayed on their feet, barely.

Kett ran his hand through his hair — another terribly human gesture — and turned a high-wattage smile on me. “I’m glad I didn’t kill you, witch.”

“Half-witch,” Desmond said — for some reason he was stuck on that point — as he pinned me back against the wall. His touch was light but it cleared my head. I’d been listing toward the vampire as if he was exuding some sort of magnetism.

“Oh? Yes, indeed,” Kett graciously acknowledged. “And thank you, alpha, for the gift of your werewolves. They are young and strong. I haven’t fed on such for many a year.”

“We needed you focused on the correct hunt,” Desmond answered, his sneer turning sour around the edges.

“Yes,” Kett agreed good-naturedly. This sexy, languid vibe of his was seriously freaking me out. I avoided eye contact, though he hadn’t taken his gaze off me.

“I’ve claimed a life debt from the half-witch,” Desmond announced.

Kett’s smile fell abruptly away, along with whatever magnetism he’d been exuding. His thoughts were once again hidden behind his icy mask in an immediate and complete transformation. The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

“Difficult magic,” the vampire said. “Not for the light of heart.” Me, he meant. Not for me.

“We sealed the bond without concern. The half-witch will deliver me to the killer. Once Hudson is avenged, the debt will lift.”

“If the terms were clear, and I hope for both of your sakes that they were, then all will be well.”

“And if the terms weren’t clear?” I squeaked just a little, but at least I’d found my voice. Nothing had been clear to me for days now.

Kett eyed me coolly. I was once again just an interesting bug to him. “I’m sure the Lord and Alpha of the West Coast North American Pack knows what he’s doing, one way or the other.”

The werecat and the vampire locked gazes, neither saying anything further. After a few moments of this stare-off, I wondered if I could just wander away unnoticed.

Then Kett nodded as if they’d been speaking the whole time. He looked away. “She isn’t under my protection.”

“Then you have no say,” Desmond said.

“No, but the wards on her home speak of great power.”

“I have no fear of witches,” Desmond snorted.

“You are young,” Kett answered without the heat of any accusation.

They both turned to look at me. Okay, I had wandered off a bit, just to see if they’d notice. They did, damn them.

“The witch knows the magic that raised the dead werewolf,” Kett said, far too casually for someone delivering a death sentence. Bastard.

I groaned and closed my eyes. Noticed, did he? Damn. I’d hoped to slip away and sort through everything in my head for a day or two. Okay, maybe a week — and my Gran’s return.

I opened my eyes and offered what was meant to be a charming smile. It felt shaky across my stiff face.

That freaky green glow rolled over Desmond’s eyes as he returned my smile with a nasty one. “Oh, there will be blood tonight,” he whispered.

As his magic brushed over me, I shivered as if it had been an actual breeze — though warm, not cold, so that my reaction had nothing to do with temperature.

There always was blood in the deep, dark depths of despair and tragedy, wasn’t there?

∞

It was Rusty’s practically dormant necromancy I’d sensed in the morgue, before and after the zombie rose. I was actually having a difficult time shaking off the residual of it, still coating my throat and nostrils even heavier than the actual smell of the morgue. I’d cleared that scent out after only a few fresh breaths of alley air.

Rusty’s magic didn’t feel evil. Just twisted in a way I’d never felt from him before, which gave me pause and stopped me from naming him.

I slumped against the cement wall I’d been skirting in my attempt to exit the alley unnoticed. Kett and Desmond closed the distance between us in a single step each. I turned my face away from Desmond’s glowing green eyes and Kett’s impassive expectancy.
 

Kandy had returned from the car, which I guessed was parked nearby. She stood off to one side, flexing and massaging her hand. I realized she was pushing claws through the tips of her human fingers, as if practicing the technique. I wondered if it hurt.

Desmond growled, low and quiet. It was a warning sort of noise like a cat might make. A very large cat.

“What if I’m wrong?” I asked no one in particular.

“You recognized the magic, though?” Kett reconfirmed.

“Yes, but it felt twisted, not evil. Not like the trinkets.”

“Have you ever been around the caster when he or she raised the dead?”

I locked eyes with Kett, looking for some understanding from him. I didn’t want to get a friend killed. “The caster shouldn’t have been capable of such a thing.”

“The same caster who’s been killing werewolves and siphoning off their power?” Desmond asked, rather rhetorically. Between blood lust and feeding, Kett and Desmond had obviously had time to chat.

“You’re saying he’s stolen the power?”

Desmond threw his hands up in the air, then spun to walk away down the alley. “You deal with her,” he growled at the vampire. “You just tried to rip out her throat, but she obviously trusts you more than me.”

“I don’t trust either of you!” I yelled after Desmond, but he didn’t turn back. Kandy followed him without looking at me. Once again leaving me alone with a vampire … now in a slowly darkening alley. The sun would be setting soon. The location was new, but the trepidation was old hat.

“We can’t seek justice without proof, Jade. Especially because this is an interspecies conflict, which is also one of the reasons Desmond asked me to continue to aid in the investigation after I’d ruled out vampire involvement.”

“That’s a good thing, is it?”

“Yes,” Kett answered with a sigh. He then tousled his blond hair until it was more bed head than slick skier. Magic glinted off his skin in tiny gleams of color now. I wondered if the werewolf blood strengthened him even further because of its magical potency. I wondered if repeated ingestions would actually alter his own magic.

“Why do you act more human after you’ve fed? I understand the change in skin and eye tone, but why the personality change?”

Kett stilled. “I was unaware I was less … human … between feedings. Thank you for sharing your observation, I’ll take it into consideration during our further interactions.”

I thought maybe I’d hurt his feelings. Feelings I’d been previously unaware he even had. “Maybe I’m just getting to know you better,” I said. It was a lame recovery effort, but I so hated having people pissed at me. I’m a fixer.

Kett narrowed his eyes at me, “The magic?”

Right, so he’d noticed the stalling. I closed my eyes again, but it didn’t make any difference. I could still feel him staring right through me, his gaze eating into my soul. I could also feel his magic — along with the magic of the shapeshifters waiting around the corner, all of it looming over me — just as well with my eyes closed as open. “You’ll wait for actual evidence before the murder and mayhem commences?”

“As I indicated earlier.”

I was obligated to answer. I could almost feel the life debt bond forcing the name from my mouth. “Rusty.”

“Rusty is a necromancer?”