Irresistible Magic (23 page)

No wonder she’d chosen this location first. The residential streets gradually turned into retail shops and then large commercial warehouses. Phoebe circled a few blocks. “There,” she said, pointing at a darkened four-story brick building covered in ivy.

I raised my eyebrows. “Looks condemned and deserted.”

“That’s the point, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.” Link pressed his nose to the window, his tail raised in high alert. “He senses something.”

A wide grin spread over her face. “I guessed correctly then.” She rummaged around in her bag of tricks and pulled out two tiny earpieces. She handed me one. “Put this on.”

I did as I was told.

Phoebe glanced at me, frowning. “Here.” She tossed me another mousy brown wig that was shoulder length. I was already wearing jeans and running shoes. With the disguise, I’d be as nondescript as I could get except for my wings. But I had a feeling I was going to need those.

“Let’s go.” Phoebe hopped out of the car. Link scrambled over me, jumping out seconds before I did. He shimmered gold. His bones elongated, crackling with the shift. In full wolf form, he peered around, his eyes flashing with intelligence.

“Stay close to Willow, Link,” Phoebe said. He immediately trotted to stand beside me, his large body pressing against me slightly. She patted his head. “Good dog.”

I smiled. The two didn’t always get along due to the shoe stealing, but when it came to hunting the bad guys, they had total respect for each other. Clutching my stun gun, I ran quietly behind her toward the warehouse. Link lifted his nose and the hair on his neck stood straight up. There was definitely trouble in that building. I didn’t know how he did it, but Link seemed to have developed a supernatural sense of when someone had ill intentions.

Phoebe stepped lightly and I fluttered slightly off the ground behind her. We were silent as we made our way to the back of the building. Phoebe put her finger to her lips, unnecessarily warning us to be quiet. She touched the side of the building, a white spark spreading out in a web network under her palm, and whispered, “
Engage
.”

Static filled my left ear. She adjusted a setting on her earpiece and the static in mine faded away. Neat trick to have them connected. I turned to give her a thumbs-up but froze when faint voices filled my ear.

“Our boy isn’t cooperating,” an irritated voice called.

Another person grunted. “Would you? As soon as the boss gets what he wants, that one is destined for the food den.”

I bristled, my wings tensed for flight. Food den was slang for forced vamp feedings. The idea of Tal being fanged by a vampire turned my stomach. Usually fae didn’t have to worry about vampire bites as we take measures against that sort of thing by ingesting Sunshine. It made our blood rancid to vampires. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t bite or that they wouldn’t. Piss one off enough and he wouldn’t hesitate to rip our throats out.

Phoebe pulled out a suspiciously familiar marbled green stone. I peered at it. I’d seen that jade pendant dozens of times before. It was Tal’s calming stone. She mumbled something in Latin and then pressed it into my hand. “The closer you get to him, the warmer it will get,” she whispered in my ear.

“How—?”

She held up her hand, cutting me off, and shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for questions. “Just follow me. If the stone gets hot, let me know.”

I nodded. She clutched her own sun agate with one hand and a tranq gun in the other. A feeling of pride swelled in my chest. Phoebe was armed to the hilt and willing to do whatever it took to find Tal. All of this was for him…and me, not the Void. If the new director found out she was tracking Tal at all, she’d be in some serious shit. That job was for whomever they’d assigned his case to.

I briefly wondered if we were doing the right thing, taking this on all by ourselves. But how could I know who to trust? Besides my mom, Phoebe was the only one. Everyone else—David, Allcot, anyone at the Void—they were all suspect. Everyone had an agenda. Everyone except Phoebe. She had nothing to gain from this except trouble.

Two things happened simultaneously to pull me out of my thoughts: the stone started to burn my palm and the thick heavy sensation of vampire coated me, weighting me down until my feet touched the ground again.

“Phoebs,” I whispered, but before she could turn around the earpiece buzzed and Tal’s voice filled my ear.

“You might as well end this now. She’ll never bring the drug to you.”

End this
? What did he mean? End him? A sharp pain stabbed my heart. Why was he taunting them? I grabbed Phoebe’s arm.

She stared me in the eyes and then nodded to the stone in my hand. I needed to lead her to him. Shaking from the vamp energy clinging to me, I shut my eyes and concentrated. The stone was sending fire through my palm, consuming my entire hand. My reflexes begged to fling the thing from me, but I clutched it tighter. The stone was my best bet to find Tal.

I stepped forward, slowly gauging the heat level of the stone. No change. A few more steps and the stone cooled. Dammit. I shuffled back and headed a few more steps in the opposite direction. It warmed and then cooled again. The spot in the middle was the most intense connection.

Glancing up, I spied a bar-covered window three stories high. Luckily I had wings. I nodded toward it and thrust through the vampire fog, fluttering to the side of the window, careful to only take a peek and not expose my presence.

My breath caught. Bright fluorescent lights illuminated a Plexiglas-enclosed lab. Tal was inside, his wrists and ankles shackled together. He was also stripped bare from the waist up with a dozen electrode wires attached to his body.

No! Dark circles lined his eyes, and his skin was so pale I could see the veins in his chest and neck.

This was not happening. It couldn’t be.

But it was. They had already done considerable damage. I wanted to scream at him to just give them what they wanted. Nothing was worth what they were putting him through.

That tiny voice in the back of my head reminded me that once they got what they wanted, they’d either kill him or exploit his gifts until he was a shell of his former self. It wouldn’t be the first time a vamp had turned a skilled fae into a slave.

If I wasn’t careful, it was how I’d end up.

We had to get him out now.

I dropped to the ground, careful to land lightly. Any sound at all could alert the vampire within. Phoebe pressed her lips together in grim acceptance at what must have been my wild-eyed panicked look. She ran a light hand down my arm, trying to soothe me. When I opened my mouth, she shook her head violently and pointed to the roof.

Then she mouthed, “I’ll meet you up there.”

I nodded once and glanced at Link, who was slinking off around the side of the building. He’d catch anyone trying to flee. Steeling myself, I thrust upward and fluttered inches above the flat rooftop.

A soft light flashed, followed by Phoebe materializing out of thin air. Another neat and useful trick. Witches who could materialize were rare. The spell took an incredible amount of energy. She would likely only be able to use it once, maybe twice more before depleting her magic. She stood unmoving while we studied the building, planning our attack.

There were two chimney stacks, three air-conditioner vents, and a steel door leading into the building. The door was out. Too obvious. No way was I going to fit through the chimney, so that left the air-conditioner vents. Phoebe frowned. The only way to get through without making any noise would be to use vanishing spells. Not ideal since at this rate, she’d drain all her energy before we ever got a chance to kick some vampire ass.

I held my hand up, asking her to wait. Still flying, I searched every inch of the roof and then around the top of the building until I came to the side covered in ivy. There. Peeking out from behind the foliage was a broken window, free of the usual wrought-iron bars. Upon closer inspection, I realized all the windows on this side hadn’t been barred. Someone had been too lazy to clean up the overgrown ivy.

I flew back to Phoebe and waved her over. She stepped lightly, careful to not make a sound. When we got to the edge, she knelt down and flattened out on her stomach to peer down the wall. She turned and grinned at me.

Now we were in business.

I pointed at the ivy and then myself. I was skilled with life magic and spent my days manipulating plants. Clearing the ivy was a piece of cake. I hovered near the building, letting my wings hold me steady in the air, took a deep breath, and then lightly touched my fingertips to the nearest vines.

Their life rushed into me, giving me the familiar jolt of energy, but instead of manipulating it and forcing it back into the plant, I took it and stored it away inside me and watched as the small section of the ivy wilted before my eyes. I smiled and repeated the process until enough of the plant fell away from the window, leaving us with enough room to squeeze through.

Phoebe nodded her approval and indicated she’d go first. We hadn’t exactly made a plan. We didn’t even know how many people were in the building. So far, I knew there were the two humans who were torturing Tal and at least one vampire who was hiding somewhere. He was close, but not so close it was affecting my ability to move. Not like what happened in Mid-City earlier in the day.

Three wasn’t so bad, but it would be better if Link was inside. Phoebe could take the vampire down. But if the humans were on Tal’s new drug, we could be in serious trouble.

No time to stop and worry about it now. Tal was in bad shape. I wasn’t leaving without him.

Phoebe grabbed hold of the ivy I hadn’t killed, climbed down the side of the building, and disappeared through the window. My pulse started to race. I gripped my stun gun tighter and fluttered to the window, squeezing my way in.

A flash of light momentarily blinded me, followed by a cry, and then a grunt of pain filled the warehouse. Footsteps echoed against the wall.

Dammit! That had to be Phoebe. What had gone so terribly wrong so fast?

There wasn’t a ledge or anything to climb down on. How had she gotten to the floor? Magic? My only choice was to crawl out the window or flutter to the floor and pray no one saw me. There wasn’t any contest. Phoebe and Tal needed me.

Something in the air seemed to shift. Fear gripped me as the metaphysical weight of a vampire weighed me down, forcing me to drop to the concrete below.

And before I could even blink, the form of a chiseled vampire with glowing blue eyes materialized before me.

“Willow Rhoswen,” he said lightly with a smile I was sure he intended to be welcoming but came off as chilling. From his exposed fangs to the warrior stance, he was one hundred percent predator. It took all my effort to not shrink back into the shadows.

Instead, I bore the curse of his vampire weight and squared my shoulders. “Release Talisen. Now. Or this is the last moonrise you’ll ever see.”

Chapter 18

The sleek, platinum-blond vampire stared at me. His lips curled as his laughter filled the warehouse.

Nervous energy mingled with my fear. Where was Phoebe? Was she hurt? I didn’t dare take my eyes off the vampire in front of me. At that moment, my only defense was my stun gun, and if I didn’t see him coming, I was a dead fae.

“What do you want from us?” I demanded, holding my ground. I stood with my feet apart and my finger stroking the trigger of my gun. One movement from him and I was ready to stun his ass.

He sobered and smoothed his gray silk suit. “What everyone else wants, I suppose. But that’s not the question you should be asking.”

I clenched my teeth, knocking back the fear threatening to immobilize me. “I’m not in the mood for games, vampire. Let Talisen go and maybe we’ll talk. Until then, you’ll get nothing.”

Narrowing his eyes, his voice came out in a low growl. “You’ll do whatever I tell you to, faery. I’ve got the upper hand here.” He stretched his arm out and snapped his fingers.

Light filled the warehouse, making my eyes water. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision. He had his attention focused off to the left and his smile was back. I glanced to the side and did a double take.

Son of a bitch!
Lined up against the wall were Harrison, Phoebe, and Nicola, another witch who was Pandora’s half sister. Phoebe must have been ambushed as soon as she entered the building. They’d known we were here. But how had Harrison and Nicola gotten there?