Raising Innocence (14 page)

“I’m so sorry, he’s gone berserk. I don’t know how he followed me here. I didn’t know where else to go.” She opened her green eyes to stare up at me, looking to me for safety, and my heart clutched against my ribcage, not for her, but for someone else. She couldn’t be talking about O’Shea, could she?

No, she wouldn’t have tried to take him out too, would she? Shit, of course she would.

Which meant that Giselle’s last words meant even more now.
Trust your heart.

The roar of a man caught between beast and human echoed into the room. Backlit with the light from the open door, O’Shea stood on the threshold, bare-chested, and bare foot with only a pair of tattered khaki pants on, and a flashy gold chain around his neck. A chain that looked remarkably similar to the anklet Milly had made for Eve.

My heart thumped hard at the sight of him, the first in over a month. He’d leaned out, any excess he’d burnt off with the shifting from wolf to man and back again.

“I’m here to kill Alex,” he said, the words in a monotone, like a robot working on command. It had to be the collar, there was no other thing that would make O’Shea go after Alex, even at his weakest time when he first was bitten he managed to control himself.

Alex swayed side to side as he clung to a chair, ears flipped back in submission. “Not right, not right. No kill Alex!”

Not taking my eyes off O’Shea, I said, “Milly, hold O’Shea back. Something’s wrong and I need to talk to him.” I knew she would refuse, but I had to ask.

Her words were soft, and I could hear the regret in them, but she didn’t apologize. “I can’t, I’m exhausted.”

Fuck, I hated being right! O’Shea’s eyes flicked over me then skidded over to Alex. With a second roar, he leapt through the room, scattering people as their brains finally clicked in. I heard the first shot of a gun, felt the bullet careen past my head, though I was a long ways from O’Shea and the bullet’s trajectory.

“Gun’s won’t work,” I yelled, yanking my two blades free of their sheaths. I stood in O’Shea’s path.

Time seemed to slow, giving me long moments to think. I didn’t want to do this. My heart slammed against my chest and in a moment of desperation, I Tracked O’Shea. Sure, he was right in front of me, but I needed to know what he was feeling.

Anger. Fear. Desperation. Shame.

Shit, this was about to get bad real fast.

“Liam, don’t do this!” I knew I somehow had to get to the torc, past his reach; then time seemed to pick back up again. My onetime lover-newbie werewolf and FBI agent slammed into me, knocking me to the floor. Could I have run him through? Yes, but I couldn’t, not with what I knew in my gut, in my heart. This wasn’t O’Shea; this was Milly. I rolled to my feet. “Alex, here,” I yelled, and the werewolf skidded out of O’Shea’s reach and cowered behind me.

O’Shea twisted around toward me and the ache in his eyes, the pain there stunned me. “Don’t do this,” I said, my hand shaking. “I don’t want to kill you, Liam!” I had to keep Milly thinking I believed what was going on. Keeping Alex behind me, I pushed backwards, working my way to where Milly had last been.

The Officers in the room were spread out, watching this play out like a hostage situation, which I guess, in a way it was.

The patter of little stocking-covered feet reached my ears, but I couldn’t look away from O’Shea.

“Pamela, stay out of the way,” I yelled.

“I can help,” she said, and O’Shea was lifted into the air, caught in a spell that Milly should have been able to do blindfolded.

I lowered my blades and took in a deep breath, finally looking over at Pamela, “You okay for a second?”

She bobbed her head in agreement and took a bite out of her candy bar. “Yes, I can hold him like this for a long time.”

Milly slowly stood up, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry, Rylee. Truly.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said, walking over to her, readying my body for the fast lunge and slice of the blade it would take to remove her head from her shoulders. For some reason, I didn’t want her to suffer. Stupid me. “You couldn’t have known—” a chair slammed into me from behind, sending me to the ground.

A nightstick was next, and I got bitch slapped twice with it before I got my hands wrapped around the weapon, effectively killing the magic on it.

I flung the nightstick at her and stood, a sword in my hands.

“Bring it, bitch,” I growled.

Eyes wide, she stared at me, shock filtering through her green orbs slowly.

“So, we are on two sides, are we?”

“Have been for a while, I just didn’t know it,” I said, swirling my two swords, loosening my wrists up.

Sadness etched her features. “This is the only way.” She turned to face Pamela, and I felt her gather her power, the black aura around the spell visible even to me. A death spell, one that would eat the kid in a matter of seconds.

“Pamela, get down,” I screamed as I launched myself at Milly.

The black spell left Milly’s hand as I hit her full-on, tackling her to the ground. Nothing but the pounding of my own heart filled my ears in the moment it took to hit the ground with Milly.

Milly effectively cushioned my fall, though her screech brought sound in living colour back to my ears. People rushed around us as if we didn’t exist, and I took the moment to look at Milly, try to discern where things had changed.

“Milly, why?”

She looked away, tears streaming back into her hair “I’m doing this for you, Rylee. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“That makes no sense,” I said, my voice hardened. “And it doesn’t matter. You’ve signed your own death warrant.”

She looked at me then, her eyes as green as always, but harder than I’d ever seen them.

I moved back enough so that I could jerk her to her feet, keeping her hands clasped in mine and keeping her magic from flowing.

Looking around the precinct, desks and paper were everywhere, and there was a group of officers clustered around where Pamela had stood. My heart sunk until I saw a blonde head bob around the group and walk toward me, blue eyes serious.

“Two of the officers took the angry werewolf to a cell, but I didn’t let him go until they got him there.”

I licked my lips, then nodded, thinking perhaps it wasn’t best that Pamela stay with me. Shit, within hours of meeting me, she had a death spell tossed at her and a rampaging werewolf within ten feet of her. Not a good sign. I had to get the collar off O’Shea, before anything else.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us, Rylee?” Milly asked, her voice full of venom.

My mean streak surfaced. “Meet your replacement.”

Milly stiffened against my hands. “She won’t be able to replace me.”

I snorted. “She already has.”

M
illy was placed into a cell despite my protests that she wouldn’t be there come morning, and for some reason, no one would let me run her through. Nor would they allow me below in the cells, stating I wasn’t cleared, that I could be trying to help Milly and O’Shea. Fuck them all, they’d find out soon enough how very wrong they were to think they could hold a witch behind bars. Everyone scoffed at me. Or at least, every human did. The two other shape shifters, Will and Officer Smith, were guarding O’Shea’s cell and keeping an eye on Milly while they were at it. So far, we hadn’t been able to get close to Liam. Whatever Milly had instructed him with was keeping him raging at anyone who came too close. Pamela said she could hold him so we could remove the collar he wore, but Dr. Daniels was being a major pain in the ass, not allowing Pamela out of her sight.

On that line, Dr. Daniel’s used the chaos at the precinct to harp on the fact that an officer had been killed only feet from where Pamela had stood. If only the doctor had understood that Milly had been aiming for Pamela, I had no doubt that the kid would have already been whisked away.

As it was, Agent Valley stepped in, surprising the hell out of me yet again.

“Dr. Daniels, was it?”

The red faced, red dressed doctor nodded sharply. “Yes.”

“Agent Adamson,” he said, giving me a full title, and I choked as if something had gone down the wrong tube. Agent Valley just gave me a warning look and continued. “Agent Adamson is one of the best agents we have and has dedicated her life to going after cold cases where children have been abducted. If young Pamela wants to stay with her for a short while, I personally will vouch for her safety.”

The doctor shook her head. “That is
not
good enough. We have to proceed with the proper procedures and the proper paperwork. This is . . .” their voices trailed off as Agent Valley herded her away from me, Pamela, and Alex, who sat with his chin on Pamela’s knee.

“Pamela, as much as I appreciated your help, this isn’t safe for you. The doctor is right about that,” I said, slumping into a chair beside her.

“You’re going to make me go with her?” She asked, her voice quavering.

“No, I’m not. You have to make up your own mind and I think you’re old enough. But my life isn’t safe. What you saw just now, that sort of shit happens all the time. You could die if you stay with me.” I couldn’t pull any punches here, she had to know the truth before she made a decision to stay or not.

Her blue eyes went thoughtful for a moment before she answered. “But you save kids, right? Kids like me?”

I nodded. “Whenever I can.”

She bowed her head, her face curtained by her raggedy blond hair. After a moment, she lifted her head; her blue eyes were clear, looking far older than her fourteen years.

“I want to help you,” she said. “You need someone like me, someone who can do magic. I want to be her replacement.”

Couldn’t argue with that. But there was one thing bothering me. “You don’t act much like the teenagers I know.”

She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth with her teeth, sucking at it before speaking. “My parents kept me locked up from a pretty young age, as soon as I was able to . . . do things.”

I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how shitty her childhood had been. We had a case to solve, kids to bring home, and then I could go after Berget. And hopefully somewhere in all of that, I could give Pamela some semblance of a life.

*-*-*-*

The cell stunk like fear, piss and vomit, none of it his own; they assailed his now sensitive nose, making him breathe shallowly. The coolness of the lower cells didn’t bother him, but the fact that directly across from him sat Milly, did.

Next to his cell stood two shape shifters, one a werewolf like him, and the other—he drew in a deep breath—smelled like a mountain lion he’d caught wind of once.

The cat shifter had tried talking to him, but had given up when O’Shea hadn’t been able to answer with anything but snarls and a lunge at the cage. Milly glared at him from across the way. Still, he could do nothing without her explicit command and she hadn’t said anything since she’d said, “Kill Alex.”

Seeing Rylee had put him into a tailspin, her tri-coloured eyes staring up at him, and all he’d been able to say was, “I’m here to kill Alex.” Rylee would kill him. She promised him once that if he hurt Alex, she would. And Rylee was, if nothing else, the kind of girl who followed up on her word. Milly had planned this well.

Milly stared hard at him, her lips moving softly as she whispered a command, her eyes flicking to the werewolf. “Kill him.”

Without hesitation, O’Shea reached out and snagged the werewolf by the neck through the bars, snapping it with a sharp twist. The cat shifter whirled around and Milly hit him in the back with a spell.

Two more quick incantations and both cell doors were open. Milly flicked her wrist, slamming the cat shifter into the far wall, where he slid down into a crumpled pile.

“Is he dead?”

O’Shea listened, heard the heartbeat steady on the cat shifter. Milly hadn’t commanded him to tell the truth.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go. We have work to do.”

Unable to fight her, O’Shea followed in Milly’s wake.

*-*-*-*

Within five minutes, the sounds of fighting and the feel of heavy-duty magic floated up to us from the lower cells. Fuck it all to hell and back. Pamela stood, and I put a hand on her shoulder. “No, we wait here.” I knew that if I went down to the cells, she’d be right behind me. I couldn’t risk her. Not even for O’Shea.

A full minute passed and then another. and finally, Will stumbled up, his head bleeding from a gash. “They’re gone.”

I nodded, totally unsurprised. There was no real way to keep Milly from using her magic unless I was right there, holding onto her. Officers ran to the lower levels, but I knew they were too late; it had been too late when they put Milly in a cell and expected her to stay there. The humans always took the longest to learn.

Without a doubt, Milly had O’Shea enthralled, of that much I was certain. There was no way he’d have done what he did, not even as a werewolf. His drive to protect others, to do the right thing, would have only intensified as the wolf in him grew. If we’d only been able to get that fucking torc off him.

I helped Will to a chair, gave him a quick once over after pressing a bandage to his head, then stood back. “You’re lucky she didn’t kill you.”

Will lifted tired eyes to mine. “She asked him if I was dead. He lied to her.”

I wanted to fist pump. I knew it! “She has him under a spell or something. He’s not like this.”

“So we shouldn’t try and kill him?”

I shook my head.

Will stood up. “Then I better tell the other guys that.”

My gut clenched, and I put a hand on his arm. “No, if he comes at them” —I swallowed hard— “he won’t hold back. It won’t be his fault, but he wouldn’t want other people to die just because of what’s happened. Not even to save himself.”

Will’s eyebrows climbed. “You know him that well?” The unasked question, 'You two were a thing?' hovering between us.

I answered both. “Yes.”

Will limped off and I leaned on the table, staring down at the paperwork. As if we could catch the Necromancer that way. This was the problem with the human law, with the rules and regulations that choked the life out of those doing the right thing, and allowed the assholes to climb through a loophole made up of paperwork and unjust laws. Looking around, I saw officers putting the office back together, watched them quickly settle back into their seats at their desks. Heads down, fucking heads in the goddamned sand. I knew what we were dealing with, knew that it was a Necromancer, so why weren’t we Tracking him, getting this case taken care of? Because someone hadn’t signed a sheet of paper giving me the right to go after him? Because the stupid humans thought they were safe behind their file folders and lists of procedures? Fuck this.