Devious Magic (8 page)

A truce was a start.

“I’m going to head out and relieve Jay and Kris.” Annalise got to her feet and took her plate and mug, carrying them towards the kitchen. “Michelle’s probably already waiting for me.”

“Just leave them by the sink, I’ll do them in a while,” I called after her.

She stopped, looked back at me and frowned. I made a big thing out of being house-proud – it was hard not to, now that I had so much space of my own. “You sure?”

“No problem, go fight evil.” I grinned.

As alpha male, Gage was taking the organisation of the stakeout very seriously, which gave me some reassurance. Annalise was scheduled to take on the next watch alongside a pretty, redheaded wolf called Michelle Dunphy who was a couple of years older than I and a relatively new member of their pack. I knew Annalise’s eagerness to leave early this morning was less about getting to their rendezvous on time and more about getting some extra alone time with Beau, who was due at work. He called the early evening Brotherhood-watch shift. I hoped to hell this was not going to spoil their weekend plans.

They slipped outside, hand in hand, walking towards Beau’s truck. For a moment, I envied Annalise. She not only had a great brother, but also lived in her hometown surrounded by her childhood friends. I admired her joyous nature, her ability to make everyone feel welcome. Most of all, I envied her freedom. Few people would mess with Annalise and risk the wrath of the pack.

Before I’d arrived to Wilding, the pack had free rein to run wild out in this neck of the woods. They even had a private meeting house, the Loup Garou, that was a mile or so away, at the other end of Shadow Wood Lane. They were forced to lie low when I arrived, until they discovered I was something other than human. Only then, did they reveal themselves to me. Now they were a regular fixture in the woods and I often saw them in both their human and wolf forms. Out of respect, I stayed away while they transitioned, since it was a very personal thing and they always ended up naked. Occasionally, I’d see one of them through the change, as some didn’t seem to care. It was a strange thing to watch bones slide and lock into new positions, claws grow or retract, muzzles become noses and so on.

“Is there anything I can help the pack with?” I asked Gage. I hated feeling useless while the pack came to my aid again. A few months ago, they chased off the large gathering of witches who arrived uninvited to my house. While a few of the witches were intent on causing trouble, the rest were spectators. They were mainly interested in seeing if any battle lines were being drawn, all part of the Council’s leadership challenge. I proved myself to them and that I was a force to be reckoned with, the wolf pack right beside me. No one was quite sure what the repercussions would be, but, so far, things had been quiet on that front. The inevitable power surge, however, brought other unforeseen problems we didn’t want in Wilding.

“Not a thing. Like I said, we’ve got the Brotherhood on twenty-four hour watch and that’s all under control. So long as we know where you are, and where they are, and that it’s not the same place, we’re good.”

“I really appreciate it.”

“I’ll say it again, not a problem. Happy to help.” Gage stood, tugging on a light jacket as some concession to the late winter air. “I have to get to work though. You’ve got my number. Call if you need anything.”

“Sure.” I left Gage to walk himself out.

After Kitty and I washed and dried the dishes, and Evan excused himself to work, Étoile insisted on carrying on with our magic lessons as normal. Despite Kitty’s big gap in her studies while she’d been in the hospital, her magic was coming through thick and fast. Her weather specialism afforded her a very strong connection to the earth. It seemed like she could create any climatic conditions she chose. On a small scale, she was terrific. On a larger scale, she wavered a little but I’d seen her create tropical sunshine, and then make snow fall in the same location.

Kitty was instructed by Étoile to practise making and directing mist, coiling it like candyfloss around her hand. Meanwhile, she had me practise my telekinesis. Throughout my life I’d made things happen and sometimes, it had really scared me. Then, almost a year ago, under Evan’s tutelage, I deliberately used it to make an inanimate object move.

Now, I found tapping into my magic much more easily. I simply had to focus on the object in question and will it. No longer did things slide across tables. I could make them float to me, land in my hand, or alight wherever I chose.

Currently Étoile had me calling specific objects from different rooms, mundane things and things she planted, which involved a lot more concentration, something I found scarce while I was worrying about the Brotherhood’s next moves.

After an hour of moving objects around the house, I felt exhausted and I was just resting my head on the kitchen table when I heard Evan’s footsteps approaching. I looked up, smiling, as he stuck his head around the door.

“I’m going out,” he said succinctly. “I’ll be gone a couple of hours.”

“Where to?” I stifled a yawn.

“Errands,” he said, and was gone before I could ask what sort of errands. As far as I knew, Evan had people who ran around and did things for him. In regards to his business, he was currently outsourcing most of his daily work to various employees – whom I’d yet to meet – leaving him free to manage the overall business. Apart from occasionally mailing packages, I’d never seen him run any kind of errand. A little part of me was suspicious that he had discovered something about the Brotherhood that he was choosing not to share. All at once, I felt bad at that. I’d gotten used to sharing everything with Evan. The same little part of me that wondered if I were making a mistake by not being more acquiescent to his desire to go home, also wondered what parts of his life he kept from me.

His business was operated only on a fairly secretive basis, and Evan told me that sometimes he thought it was best I didn’t know. He didn’t say in case it put me in danger, but that’s what I inferred. Maybe that should have made me more worried than it did, but it didn’t. He didn’t interfere with my job, so I didn’t interfere with his.

Remembering I had a question that I wanted to ask him, I stepped through to the living room. The lingering heat told me Evan had already gone, shimmering out of the house. He could be anywhere by now.

“I have to go pick up a package,” Kitty said. She sat on the arm of the chair as she pulled on her boots.

“I have a couple of errands to run too.” Étoile looked from me to Kitty, wrinkling her nose in thought.

“Anything I can do for you?” Kitty offered.

“No, but thanks anyway.” She stared at me and I found myself pulling back.

“It can’t wait though. I need to pick up a few things before I make my trip on Monday. We’ll all have to go together.”

“What trip?” I asked. It was the first I’d heard of it.

“Just a quick visit to the city. Nothing important,” she replied breezily.

“I’ll be okay in the house by myself. I can call Evan if anything happens.”

Étoile contemplated that for a moment. “I’d rather not risk it. You’re under our protection, missy. Let’s go.”

We piled into Kitty’s car and she drove us into town. I followed them around like a naughty puppy while they went about their business before we separated, with Kitty shooting off to the post office. It was only when we passed the pharmacy that I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.

Evan and I hadn’t used any protection the previous night.
Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!
I didn’t know what to think about that. We’d never gotten so carried away to the point of not using anything before and it made my stomach lurch. I was twenty-five and, although that made me reasonably old enough to be a mother, it wasn’t anything I’d ever thought about. Could a witch and a daemon even procreate together? I guessed so because we’d always used protection before.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” said Étoile, glancing over her handwritten list. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head. It wasn’t something I could discuss with her, not until I’d spoken to Evan, anyway. Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure how I felt about having a conversation like this with him either. This ventured into serious with a capital “S” category and there were a whole lot of other things in that category that needed to be broached too.

“Oh, shoot,” muttered Étoile, looking in her bag. “I forget to pick up my dry cleaning and they have my favourite coat and my black pantsuit. Crap. We’re going to have run back to pick it up.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, looking all the way down the street then back to Darla’s, less than twenty yards away. Coffee sounded way better than traipsing after Étoile. I jabbed a finger at the diner. “I’m going to wait in there. I can see Kristin at the counter.”

Étoile looked around for Kitty again, sweeping the street, probably weighing up the chances of anything awful happening to me. There weren’t a lot of people around now that lunch hour had passed but still enough for any kind of attack to be unlikely. “Fine, but go straight in and don’t...”

I raised my eyebrows. “I am going to talk to people.”

“Fine. Text Kitty and have her pick us up outside. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” She looked at me and I stared back. “Go in,” she urged, flapping her hands at me like a mother with a hesitant child.

“Fine.” I stomped away and pushed the diner door open, blankly smiling at whomever was in front of me. Kristin waved and turned back to the woman she was talking to. They looked so deep in conversation that I didn’t like to interrupt. I wasn’t sure how long I could take being babysat. I hoped the Brotherhood would go home soon and leave me alone so I could get back to leading my normal life.
Normal. Hah.

I ordered a coffee to go and sat on the stool at the window, looking onto the street. Pulling out my phone, I tapped a message to Kitty, telling her where to meet me, then, as I slipped it back into my bag, I saw Kitty’s car barrelling down Main. I grabbed my coffee, popped a plastic lid on it, picked up my bag and jogged outside, reaching the sidewalk just as the car screeched to a stop in front of me. The window unwound and I leaned down to look in.

“Get in,” shouted Kitty, reaching over to pop the lock.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We got a sighting in town. The Brotherhood are on the move.”

“Where to?”

“They’re headed east, towards a private airstrip near Deliverance.” Deliverance was our nearest big town, just marginally too small to be a city, and I recalled seeing the airstrip off the highway. It was used mostly by a flying school, but, every so often, visiting dignitaries would use it too.

“That’s good, right? They’re going?” I climbed in, barely having time to lock the seatbelt in place before Kitty had hit the gas, peeling out of there.

“No,” Kitty shook her head, taking her eyes off the road for a moment to look at me, fear etched all over her face. “They’ve got Étoile.”

Five

My mouth dropped open in horror. Étoile and I may have only parted company a matter of minutes ago, but now I thought about it, I turned my back and walked straight into the coffee shop. Everyone had been so concerned about me, it hadn’t even occurred to us to seriously think someone else could be the target. “How the hell did they do that?” I gasped.

“I was just getting into the car when I saw them grab her off the street so I took down the registration and called the pack, before I came to get you. They spotted the van leaving town and they figured that’s where they were headed.”

“How do they know they were going to the airstrip?” I puzzled. There had to be a dozen places going east, including a train station and several warehouses, as well as the Blue Moon Motel they were staying in.

Kitty sped through the light just as it changed to red and pointed the car east, in pursuit. “We’ll stop them, okay. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

“I’m more worried about what Étoile will do.” Étoile would be the last person I’d try and kidnap. Any witch hunter who had done their research would know that she was powerful, far more so than Kitty or I. Kidnapping Étoile would be an incredibly stupid move. Of course, I could be wrong by giving the Brotherhood the benefit of thinking they were smart and well researched, but all indications showed that they bided their time, waiting until they had the right victim. I once thought they were smash, grab and burn, but I knew now they were well orchestrated, well funded and somehow protected from the law.

“Just relax, okay? We’ll get there in ten minutes. We can save her.”

“Shouldn’t we call for back up?”

“The wolves will meet us there. They’re already ahead of us.”

“Which ones?”

“I don’t know. The big one, the leader, spotted the van.”

“Their leader?”

My bag started to vibrate and I unzipped it, rooting around inside to find my phone. Finally I saw it glowing next to my wallet. I reached in and turned it over, stopping before pulling out. The screen was bright and in bold letters, I saw the last name I expected to see calling me. I hesitated, looking at it.

“Everything okay?” asked Kitty, looking sideways at me.

“Uh, yeah. Fine!” I tried a small smile. I probably squeaked that out, my voice a little too high as I struggled to contain my sudden panic. Taking a deep breath, I frantically scrambled to remember everything Evan taught me, while keeping my expression blank. Something was awfully wrong. Gage was at work in Deliverance and would be until at least six. Kitty knew that, and she would have known his name too.

Slowly, I shifted my vision so my eyes were slightly out of focus, then inhaled deeply. Just the scent alone told me whoever was in the driver’s seat was not Kitty, despite having the same face and clothing.