Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (14 page)

“And Curt has his book.”
Jodie nodded at him. “So we have to find him and what? Take it from him before Ethan gets it back? That sounds easy enough.”

Tristan was shaking his head
, and Reid was afraid of what he was going to tell them when he stood up. He paced the room in the same way his daughter did, and Reid wondered if the two of them knew how much alike they really were.

“Now that Curt has the book
, and given the fact that he has a little magic because he can shift, he can use the spells, and the book will become his. If he says one of the incantations or inadvertently messes one up that he might read, then he could do a great deal of harm to the others around him. Or worse yet, to the earth.” Phil handed him a sheet of paper as Tristan continued. “That’s a mark that will protect the book. But if you turn the sheet over you can see the one that will send the book to anyone who wants it. You’ll notice that there is only the slightest difference in the markings. If he tries it, even messes up one single stroke, everyone who ever had the tiniest bit of magic will have the ability to see that book. It’s dangerous to have it out.”

“You’ve touched Curt.”
Reid looked at Jodie when she suddenly stopped pacing and stared at him. “You hit him at the cemetery and got blood on your hand.”

He nodded.
There was no mark, of course, that had healed several hours after it happened, but she took his hand into hers and closed her eyes. When she opened them, he could see the fear in her eyes, but instead of asking her what happened, he pulled her close to put his forehead to hers. What she’d found was there for him to see too.

“He’s in a warehouse on Denver Street.
Third floor in the back. Room thirty-three.” Reid watched the man pace. It was weird seeing him like this in her mind, but he knew that they’d need to know everything. Curt appeared to be eating candy bars and drinking beer. “I think he’s drunk and the book is—”

“It’s in the bed.”
Jodie pulled back and looked at him as she finished. “You have to go and get it with me. One of us will have to be Ethan and the other will have to get the book. He’s already called him to sell it back to him. But Curt’s not told him where he’s hiding. Ethan isn’t going to get the book back.”

“No, he won’t.”
Tristan came to stand beside them. He did not look like he was very happy with them. “But you two won’t be going after it. I will. I’m the one that needs to do this.”

Before Reid could say a word
, Tristan was flying back against the wall and hung there. Jodie stood up, and when Austin made to go toward her, she simply snapped her fingers, and he, too, was against the wall. No one in the room moved, not even when Nancy entered with a tray of cookies and tea.

“You’ve been being all alpha
-like again, haven’t you, son?” Nancy sat the tray down and looked at the two men as if seeing them pressed against a wall was an everyday occurrence. “You do know that she’s more than likely stronger than both you idiots put together, don’t you? And not to mention…. Why don’t you try to get free? Both of you, try to break the hold she has on you.”

Reid could see them struggl
ing. Jodie didn’t move, nor did she gloat that they couldn’t get loose. When Tristan started to speak, a strap of tape was over his mouth and the words were cut off.

“I’m a good deal stronger than Ethan as well
, though I doubt he knows that right now.” Jodie walked toward the two men. “When you agree to shut up and behave yourselves, I’ll let you go. Until then, you’ll hang here until I come back.”

“You should know that when I get down
, I’m going to punish you. I’m your alpha.” Austin struggled to get free and glared at CJ when she laughed. “What the hell is so funny? I’m your mate. Shouldn’t you be at least pissed that she’s holding me?”

“
You’re fucking lucky I don’t have you hanging there. I’d have a rope around your neck if you treated me half the way you treat her.” CJ looked at Jodie and winked. “You really should let him go. While he can be a bit overbearing at times, he does have a good heart.”

“He will not tell me what I can and cannot do.”
Jodie lifted Austin up a little further before she let him go. When he fell to his ass, she said “oops,” though Reid didn’t think it had been an accident.

They all looked at Tristan
, who hadn’t been let go. He was glaring at her, but she didn’t seem to mind. When she stepped toward her father, she whispered something, and before anyone could say a word, Tristan was gone.

“Jodie?”
Phil looked like he was going to say more but only laughed. “I see. Well, that’s one way to deal with him.”

He’d have to find out later what she’d done to her father. Whatever it was
, Phil kept laughing about it off and on for the next hour. The plan was nearly set when he approached Jodie. She nodded once at something Phil said to her, and Tristan was back. If Reid thought he looked pissed before, right now he looked murderous. But he left her alone and sat quietly in the chair where he’d been put when he arrived.

The plan was ready.
Was he, he thought? Not really, but if she said it would work, then he was willing to give it a try. Christ, he hoped he didn’t fuck up.

Chapter 14

Curt looked out the window for the tenth time in as many minutes.
Where the hell was he? And where the hell was his money? Curt glanced out again when he heard something and sneered at the five or six little boys playing in the yard beyond the building he was in.

Ethan had been livid
, and Curt had almost run out of quarters when he’d had to call him back several times. The payphone a mile from where he was staying was the only one he’d seen all day and frankly, if asked, he would have said that they didn’t exist anymore. Looking out the window again, he moved to the pallet he’d been sleeping on when he’d gotten there. The newspaper with his picture on the front page still scared him when he looked at it.

Murder
, it said. He was wanted in connection with the murder of his brother, and there were questions about his father’s death as well. Curt hadn’t been able to go out but once since this whole thing had started, and that time nearly got caught. Christ, did everyone want to be mean to him?

Curt had been trying to find someone to rob a store.
He didn’t want them to really do it, but he wanted someone to rob a place so that he could go in and save the day again. When it had happened the other day, he’d been so happy for the entire day, feeling good that people had looked up to him. He wanted it again. But that wasn’t going to happen now.

The first person he’d
approached had told him to fuck off. Curt was nearly ready to attack the man when he turned suddenly and laughed. Curt didn’t know what to think so took two steps back when the man had reached into his pants. He nearly wet himself in relief when all he pulled out was a newspaper.

“This is you.”
Curt looked at the picture of himself that was on the front page and then back at the man when he laughed again. “I got me a real live murderer here and didn’t even know it. They’s offering a reward for you to be bringed in. I think I might just go and collect it.”

Curt took off running.
He wanted to shift, but knew that if he tore his clothes up this time, he was fucked. He didn’t have anything but the clothes on his back right now. Instead, he ran and hid until it was dark and then moved to his place, looking over his shoulder the entire time.

A car pulled up in front of the
building, and he got up to see. There was a man standing next to the back door, and when he opened it and helped someone out, Curt let go of the breath he’d been holding. Finally, Ethan was there to pay him off.

It took him forever
, it seemed like, to get to his floor, and Curt stilled when he heard voices. Not just Ethan’s but someone else, a woman. He started to hide when a loud punching knock sounded at the door. Curt looked in the peep hole and saw just Ethan there.

“Well
, moron, you going to let me in or are we going to stand here playing peek-a-boo all night?” Curt didn’t understand and frowned. Why would he want to play a child’s game? “Open the fucking door, you moron.”

Curt pulled the
chain loose and stepped back. The man simply stood there, and Curt had an overwhelming feeling that he was going to die. Before he could slam the door in his face, Ethan asked him if he was going to invite him in.

“Yeah, sure.
Won’t you come in?” Ethan moved into the room like he owned it. He looked around the shabby place like he expected something to jump out at him. Curt wanted to tell him that all the rats had run off the minute he’d moved in, but didn’t. Instead, he stared at the man.

“You have my book?”
Curt nodded and continued to stare. “Well?”

Curt
is knew that he was on the slow side. He’d never finished high school, had barely finished middle school, for that matter, and could only read at a third grade level, but Ethan was standing there, looking at him as if he didn’t have the smarts to even lace up his shoes. He looked down at them now.

Of course
, they were untied and worse yet, his socks didn’t match. Curt felt anger surge over him as Ethan started to pat his foot. His mother had done that, and he’d never understood how it could tell you so much without saying a word.

“I want my money.”
Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out a brown envelope. It looked thick enough to have the five thousand dollars in it, but what would he know? He’d never seen that much money at once in his life. Just as he was reaching for it another knock sounded at the door.

Just as he
turned to answer it, he felt a tightening in the room. Curt glanced back at Ethan, and he was suddenly gone. In his place was an eddy of air that stirred the dust. He opened the door to find him standing outside again.

“What the fuck are you doing?
I don’t gots all day for you to be playing around.” Curt giggled when he finally got the peek-a-boo reference. “You think I wanna play games with you?”

“What the hell are you talking about?
Give me my book and let’s get this over with.” Curt invited him in again and watched as the man stomped in but said nothing. “Where is it?”

“I gots it hidden.
You won’t find it until I say so.” Curt was momentarily distracted when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye and stared at it. Ethan slapped him.

“Are you normally this stupid or is it that you think this will get you out of giving me what you stole from me? I assure you that it won’t.”
Curt watched as the shape he’d seen seemed to appear then disappear twice before he realized who it was.

“Jodie? What the hell are you doing here?”
Ethan turned just as his sister materialized fully. She smiled as she pulled the book he’d been going to sell to Ethan from his hidey-hole and put it into her shirt. She was gone before either of them could move.

“How the hell did she do that?”
Curt looked at Ethan when he growled. “Did you see her when you comed in the first time? Or did you bring her with you?”

“The first time?” Ethan took a step
toward the bed when he was suddenly gone as well. Curt wasn’t sure what was going on, but he leapt for the door to get out of his room. Something was taking people, he just knew it. And he wasn’t going wherever the others had gone. Standing in the hallway looking into the room he heard the car downstairs start up and move away. It wasn’t until he could hear the kids again that he realized the envelope that the first Ethan had brought was still lying in the middle of the floor. He made his way back into the room cautiously and picked it up.

“Mother fuck.”
There wasn’t anything in the thing but slips of paper. And on each one was the single word “murderer.” Curt dropped it all and stepped back. The sirens sounding outside were almost a welcome relief. When the cops came into his room, he was nearly begging them to take him.

“Careful
, this here room will take you away if you don’t watch it. Took Jodie away and Ethan too.” The cops didn’t look all that impressed with him so he tried again. “You should have seen the first Ethan. He was driving a limo and had on a suit. The second one had on a pair of neat-o pants that seemed to be made of something shiny and a long robe.”

He was being put into a
cruiser when he realized that he was in big trouble. They were reading him his rights and saying something about murder. He tried to tell them it was Jodie’s fault he’d kill Mike, and that when he poisoned his dad, it was because he wanted to sell the land. The police nodded as if they understood, and Curt felt much better. Perhaps he wasn’t in as much trouble as he’d thought.

~~~

Jodie looked at each page before going to the next. It was thick with information and some of it she could only guess what he’d needed the spell for. When Reid came into the room, she looked up at him as he leaned against the doorjamb. She smiled when he did.

“They haven’t found Ethan yet.
Tristan is pissed, of course, but he’s calming a little. Phil is having fun at his expense, which, needless to say, isn’t making the other vampire any happier. And Austin is in our kitchen wanting to speak to you.” Reid closed the door behind him when he came fully into the room. “He looks like he’s been told he can’t have any more cookies today.”

“CJ reached out to me just now. She and Austin have had it out
, she said. I’m not sure what that means to them, but she asked me to cut him some slack. He’s trying to be a good guy about this.” She lifted her legs off the couch when he sat next to her. Then he pulled them across his lap. “I thought the big bad alpha wanted to talk to me.”

“He does
, but I think he can stew for a bit.” Reid started to massage her calves. She wanted to beg him to keep it up, but he stilled and looked at her. “Curt has been arrested. They’ve charged him with first degree murder as well as they are looking into the death of your father. He admitted to that as they took him in. Told them it was your fault apparently. That you’d driven him to it.”

“He would think that.
And I figured that he’d be too stupid to keep his mouth shut.” She waited for him to say more, but when he didn’t, she continued, “I’ve been looking at Ethan’s book. He wasn’t so much powerful as he was stupid. He had a spell here that would reverse the effects of graying hair. When I thought about it, I noticed that he had more when he showed up at the warehouse than he did when he first attacked me.”

“He’ll be desperate now.” Jodie
nodded, knowing that he was talking about Ethan. “I don’t think he’ll be so nice when he finds you this time. He will outright kill you, I think.”

“He’ll try.”
Reid started to massage her leg again. She watched him, knowing that he had something on his mind, but what, she didn’t know. And she wouldn’t pry either. She didn’t want to do that unless it was necessary. He looked at her, and she knew that he’d come to a great decision. One she didn’t think she’d like.

“I’d very much like for you to listen to me before you get pissed.
All right?” She nodded. “I know that you’re very strong and well-equipped to handle this guy. I know that in my head. But my heart tells me that if you do this and I can’t protect you, somehow you’re going to get hurt. And that I can’t stand. He’s not going to stop until he has you now. Ethan knows you have his book, and worse yet, he thinks that killing you will give him whatever you have too.”

She started to point out he would have it
, but didn’t think he’d handle that so well. Instead, she stood up and stared down at him. The man simply made her heart beat a little faster and her body hum with need. When he growled low, she knew that he’d felt her desire for him.

“Did you know that
with this book I can do whatever he could do?” She opened it to a random page and said the incantation there and watched as the room flooded with light even though it was nearly dark. “That was for a vampire. In the event that he was caught unawares and needed a quick getaway.”

“The sun light would kill them.”
She nodded at his statement. “And in that book of evilness, is there anything that will make you one hundred percent safe from him?”

“Yes and no.” She turned the pages to a marking. It was a circle with several other markings within it. Jodie showed it to him.
“We need to get this put at the windows and doors of this house. It will ward off every species that comes within ten miles of here that we’re very strong.”

“I can do that.
If I could, I’d like to suggest that all the other members of this family use it as well.” She nodded and put out her hand. She’d already made five of them to hang in the windows of this floor. Reid told her he’d give them to each Force, including Phil.

“There’s something
else.” She didn’t want to tell him this, so she suggested they go to the kitchen. He didn’t move at first, but finally stood and went with her. Austin was sitting at the table on his cell phone. When they sat across from him, he closed it with a snap.

“I’m sorry.”
She nodded and smiled at him. “I was an overbearing ass, and my wife told me that if she…. She said that it’s small wonder that you didn’t put a hex on me or something.”

“I couldn’t do that before.”
He glanced at the book, then looked at her again. “Yes, there is one here in. It will make you change to wolf and stay that way. Also you should know that according to the notes in the margins, Ethan has been practicing on your kind for a very long time.”

“Christ.”
Austin got up and opened a cabinet that she’d never noticed before. He pulled out a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue and then three glasses. He poured three nearly full tumblers full of the nearly two hundred and fifty dollar label before he sat down. Austin drained his glass before he looked at her while pouring more into his glass.

His body said he was prepared for whatever she told him
, but his face said he didn’t want to know. Then she took a sip of the finest Scotch she’d ever tasted and started.

“There are over two hundred names in this book of people that had served him.
Most of them were adults, but a few, quite a few, were children. He also tried his best to breed them into other beings. Cross breeding is high on his list of experiments.” Austin took another healthy drink. “You’re going to get drunk.”

“No, sadly
, I can’t, but it can make me feel good for a few moments.” He looked at Reid. “I’ll replace this. I had no idea you drank.”