Influential Magic (34 page)

Better that than a whole host of prisoners. Right? A sinking feeling of helplessness took over, followed closely by rage. How could Maude do this? Whatever happened to justice? I could stand trial. I deserved a lawyer. This was still America, after all.

But Maude wasn’t working under the law. She was the director of the Void. That meant she did whatever she pleased. And right now, she wanted me locked away.

The power-hungry bitch. But why? What good was I down here? I could make Influence. And apparently change the chemical makeup of vampires. Was that it? Was she afraid I’d turn all vamps into sunbathers?

Damn it! I would not just sit there in a cage and wait to be given orders. Tucking my injured wing close to my body, I ran my hands along each section of the cage. If there was a weak point, I’d find it. I spent agonizing minutes fingering every single connection on the gate, every joint, even the bottom where it hit the floor. Not one area showed a sign of weakness. In total frustration, I grabbed the side of the cage and yanked as hard as I could. Agony brought me to my knees. I gritted my teeth and waited for the worst of the pain to subside.

Idiot
. My tantrum had been useless. Not one single sign of movement.

Beyond annoyed, I leaned my head against the cage door, too exhausted to form a plan. My head started to spin, and I vaguely wondered if it was from exhaustion or my broken wing. It throbbed with each breath I took. In a hazy, pain-filled stupor, I slumped down and curled up on my left shoulder.

Exhausted, I faded in and out of consciousness, waking each time Link sighed or moved. After what seemed like hours, I fell into a deep slumber. And dreamed I was sinking in quicksand.

I woke to a sharp pain in my wing and cried out, rolling to my stomach in agony. Gasping for breath, I pushed myself up on my knees, remembering the dream and the panic of trying to fly to safety. Great. I couldn’t even sleep without hurting myself. I blinked, trying to focus as I processed once again where I was. Arcane. Basement. Cage.

How long had we been down here? I had no way to tell. The room was still cast in horror-movie green and darkness.

Across from me, Link growled.

My body tensed. Was someone coming? Nervous energy ran from head to toe. I cut my eyes to Link. He stood rigid, attention focused on the stairs.

Someone
was
coming.

At the top of the stairs the door creaked. Bright fluorescent light spilled down the stairwell for a moment, followed by soft footsteps. I pressed deeper into the shadows of my cage, but Link lunged forward, snarling and biting at the crisscrossed wire. Then he started to vibrate.

“Link, no!” How was this happening? He shouldn’t be able to shift. This was bad. Very bad. His cage simply wasn’t big enough.

A fraction of a second later, he shifted into full-on wolf mode. He howled as his large body smashed against the sides of the cage. Panicked and trapped, he began to shake, frantically trying to dislodge himself. I couldn’t do anything but stare as my poor wolf toppled the cage over. Lying on his side, he scrabbled at the walls, rolled again, and ended up on his back.

Goddess, help him.

The footsteps grew slow and hesitant. Then, with a burst of energy, Link flipped again, causing the cage to land at a forty-five-degree angle right where the two sides were seamed together. Something snapped. Link went crazy, bucking, kicking, and biting. In wolf form, the cage didn’t stand a chance.

Before our visitor could get all the way to the bottom of the stairs, Link was free, head down, hackles raised, and teeth bared. My wolf was ready for a fight.

The guard’s white uniform glowed in the dim light of the basement. He stopped at the base of the stairwell and squinted.

The wolf watched him through gold eyes, his shoulders lowered, legs bent, ready to pounce. I sucked in a breath. Watching him wait for the exact moment made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

The guard spotted Link and his eyes went wide with recognition. “What the hell? How—”

Link lunged, his entire wolf body engulfing the short, pudgy guard in one swift motion. A high-pitched scream of terror filled the room, making me wince. Some guard he was. He sounded like a girl. Link swiped a heavy paw across the man’s face, silencing the earsplitting noise. The guard collapsed. Knocked out or dead, I didn’t know. Nor did I care. Blood pooled a few feet from my cage. Link snarled and nudged the unmoving body with his long nose.

“Good job, Link.” I rose, arching my back, favoring my right wing as I tried not to hurl from the pain. That was one man down. But Link couldn’t get them all. And he wouldn’t leave me. I stared at his massive form. How
had
he shifted? We were still in the Arcane. As long as we were in the building, he shouldn’t have been able to. Was it because we were underground? Maybe the magic keeping the place dry interfered with the neutralizing ward.

Had my magic come back? I clutched the door of my cage and glanced around at all the cement and metal around me. Useless. Even if I did have a spark somewhere, I didn’t have anything to siphon life from. And I wouldn’t weaken Link. Unless…“Link!”

He snapped to attention and turned his giant head toward me.

“Pull the guard over here.”

His eyebrows twitched as if he was contemplating my request.

“Just grab him and pull him to me.” I pointed.
Come on
. Who knew when the next visitor would be down or when they’d miss the guard?

Link circled the man with his lip raised and then sniffed his black work boots. He jumped back as if the scent offended him. What could be so bad that even a dog wasn’t interested? I wrinkled my nose in sympathy. I wouldn’t want to put my mouth on the ruddy man, either.

Gingerly, Link wrapped his muzzle around the man’s ankle and dragged him inch by inch until he lay along the edge of my cage. The wolf spat out the man’s limb and hacked, a full-on, hairball-raising hack.

“Yikes.” What could possibly make Link gag? I knelt down to inspect the guard. Halfway to the ground, a sudden assault of formaldehyde hit my senses. “Oh, yuck. I’m so sorry, buddy.”

The wolf lowered himself to the floor and covered his nose with one paw.

“Yeah, no kidding. What is this dude, a zombie?” He reeked of chemicals and death. I placed a hand over his chest and let out a relieved sigh when it rose on an intake of breath. At least he wasn’t dead. If he was, he’d be useless to me.

Moment of truth. I needed a life source. If I’d regained any sort of magical strength, I’d know as soon as I touched him. But where? I’d need an exposed section of skin. His hands or face. Because no way was I stripping down the stinky super geek. His hands were caked with blood from defending himself against Link and so was the right side of his face. Jesus. My dog was lethal. I’d known it intellectually, but he’d never had to take on a human before. Only vampires, and their wounds stitched themselves closed within seconds of splitting open.

I grimaced as I rested two fingers on the man’s left temple. Then I snatched them back. I couldn’t take life energy from his brain. It would make me sick. Faeries could share energy. Faeries and humans, not so much. But I could take a little just to see if my magic was back.

Get it over with, Willow
. Closing my eyes, I touched his blood-soaked hand and searched deep inside myself for a spark of magic.

Nothing.

The little tingle that usually sprang to life at the tips of my fingers stayed dormant. I let out a frustrated sigh. Maybe my body still needed time to adjust. Link always did regain his magic before I did after a trip to the Arcane.

I pressed my fingers against the guard one more time, but no matter how far I searched within myself, no magic came to the surface.

Well, crap. Now what? I needed a weapon. Or better yet, a key. A key! The concrete and metal must be zapping my brainpower. Why hadn’t I thought of that first?

“Link, help me search.” Trying not to breathe in the sickening stench of the man, I dug into his coat pockets. “He might have a key to this cage.”

Link sniffed along the opposite side of the guard’s body while I frantically moved to his pants pocket. The only thing I found was a wallet. Henry Mincer. Lived in Kentwood. No other identifying information except a credit card and a health ID card. “Come on, Henry. You’ve got to have something useful.”

I found a ballpoint pen in his shirt pocket. Great. A makeshift weapon. I set it aside and tried to reach forward to get to his other pockets, but my wing and back froze in protest. I hissed and sat back, holding my wing tight to my body.

Link gazed at me with worried eyes.

“I’ll be okay once we get out of here.” I hoped.

He nudged the jacket pocket I hadn’t been able to reach with his nose.

“Did you find something?” I sat up on my knees, pressed against the door, and peered over his body. Tentatively, I stretched my arm through the diamond-shaped wire but snatched it back when the lightning bolts shot through my back. No way was I going to be able to reach it without passing out. I clenched my fists and tried to stabilize my breathing.

Across from me, Link shimmered and returned to his Shih Tzu form. He eyed me, wagged his tail, and went to work on the guard’s pocket. His much smaller Shih Tzu paw slipped right in and a loud
tink
sounded on the concrete. He fished whatever it was away from the body with his paws and then grabbed the shiny metal cluster in his teeth.

“The keys!” I cried. “Link, bud. You really are a girl’s best friend.”

He trotted up to me, his hurt paw healed by the shift, and dropped the key ring near my hand. Then he sat there, his tongue hanging out in happy satisfaction.

I gave him a pet behind the ears and scratched his chin. “You’re such a good boy.”

With shaky hands, I grabbed the keys, trying each one. By the time I got down to the last three, I could barely jam the key into the lock. They all fit. Every single one. But none of them would pop the lock.

“Please, please, please,” I whispered, nearly dropping the key ring. I’d just got the final key stuffed in the lock when another short burst of fluorescent light rushed in from the top of the stairs. A door slammed, followed by the sounds of multiple footsteps descending into the basement.

Shit!
How many were coming? Two? Three? I clutched the pen, knowing in my heart I’d never beat them all. I wasn’t trained in combat. It would be a miracle if I could take out one. I steeled myself and tightened my grip on my pitiful weapon. No way was I going down without a fight.

Link jumped up and, to my complete surprise, shimmered slightly and shifted. He was getting stronger. Or maybe it was my fear that boosted his stamina. Either way, I had to stifle a gasp of relief.

I cranked the key in the lock, but it didn’t turn. My last damn key didn’t work. A hopeless dread crawled into my gut. Would I ever find a way out? Still unable to see our visitors, I eased back, not wanting to appear suspicious, and jammed my hands in my pockets. My right fingers hit something warm and mushy.

Gross. I pulled my hand out, eyed the brown, waxy coating, and sniffed in the cocoa-orange scent. Influence. My heart sped up. Another weapon. My lonely pen had a partner in crime. And I was just desperate enough to use it.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk
. Heavy footsteps pounded down the lower stairs.

Link hovered near the wall, out of sight from the stairwell opening.

“Fuck,” came the sound of a deep male voice. “Can’t anyone put a brighter bulb in down here? I can barely see anything.”

“Stop bitching.” Maude’s voice was flat, barely audible. “Just find out what Mincer’s doing and get back up here.”

“Fucking Mincer,” the male voice muttered, then raised his voice. “What the hell is going on down here? Got a hard-on for the faery?”

His steps slowed. “Mincer?”

Link crept closer to the stairwell opening.

“What the fuck is that smell? Jesus, if you took out the faery, the director’s going to eat you for breakfast.” The tall, lanky guard came into view as he stepped out of the stairwell and into the basement. His eyes flickered over me, caught sight of Link’s broken cage, and then landed on Mincer’s unconscious body. “Oh, fuck.”