SeductiveTracks (2 page)

While she didn’t always let Liv Retrieve her items, they had
worked so well for so long together as a team that it was hard to imagine
anything as satisfying and fulfilling ever coming her way. Liv, however,
insisted that one day something would change her mind. Shadow had stopped
arguing, but still could not get the thrill out of her blood and didn’t believe
she ever would.

Shadow shook her head to clear it of her strange
reflectiveness. She braced herself on the window frame as she climbed out and
jumped down into the soft soil of the garden. The thrill of success coursed
through her, making her blood sing and her face flush. Her body tightened in
near sexual arousal at her success.

Nipples rasping over her soft top, Shadow breathed deeply of
the night air, once again sending her senses out, listening with her jacked-up
awareness to make certain nothing disturbed the area.

The night sang around her, tiny wildlife scurried in the
dark bushes—Shadow could even feel the pull of the moon. Everything was perfect
and as it should be. Despite this, part of her felt there was something more
lurking around the corner. Shadow probed the feeling even as she felt her
energy reserves begin to run dry. It took a mammoth amount of energy to keep
her magical senses jacked up for such a long period of time, but to perform as
well as she always did it was necessary.

She could not put her finger on why she had suddenly become
so
sure
that something good was just out of reach, not quite close
enough to touch. She loved this work, enjoyed it more than she could ever
explain and would not even consider giving it up. Not for a sexy wizard. Not
for children. Not for
anything
. Yet still she felt there had to be…more.
This just couldn’t be all there was to her life. Obviously she had not found
whatever else life had in store for her yet.

Pushing the deflating thoughts to the back of her mind,
Shadow instead focused fully on the adrenaline-surging thrill of the moment.
Her pussy was slick, her labia hot and swollen, her nipples remained peaked and
her clit throbbed with the need to be touched, licked and suckled. Shadow
wished there were a wizard—or any man—whom she could casually drop by and see
right now. She needed desperately to come and for once she felt irritated that
it would have to come later A hot shower, her own fingers and a special, thick
toy she kept in her bedside drawer would be her release tonight.

Shadow knew her chances of finding a wizard who’d be a
permanent part of her life were practically non-existent. Not many men would
accept her magical talents and secret job with equanimity. Again she pushed
such thoughts away to focus on her high. There would be plenty of time for her
to reflect on why the thrill of this success no longer seemed quite as
magnificent as it always had for her.

Hefting the backpack, balancing the weight against her body
so she could jog if necessary, Shadow got hold of herself. She had parked her
car half a dozen blocks away at a nearby convenience market, just in case
someone had taken note of her plates.

If it hadn’t been for the huge amounts of adrenaline and
hormones crashing through her body, she would have been exhausted by the
massive effort the heist had taken. As it was, however, Shadow felt satisfied
with her night’s work

Only after she had stored her backpack, minus her
still-turned-off cell phone, in a nook hidden away in the trunk of her car did
Shadow walk into the store and buy a small list of regular goods. With the bags
sitting on the passenger seat and Shadow sitting tiredly in the driver’s seat,
she switched on her cell phone.

With a smirk, she dialed Liv’s number. A promise was a
promise, and more than thirteen years ago she had sworn an oath always to call
her best friend after a successful endeavor. The call still held a dual
purpose—to assure Liv that all was well, but also to prove she wouldn’t be
needing bail money and a slick, glib explanation for her actions.

The phone rang and Shadow could not contain the broad grin
as her best friend sleepily answered.

“Hey, Liv. I’m fine and well, just thought you should know…”

Matthias Kestell had hoped when Captain Will Alcott called
him into his office that it would be to give him good news. He should have
known better. As Matt opened the flimsy door, only years of skill stopped him
from checking at the doorway. Julian Sherwyn already stood inside, leaning over
Will’s desk and arranging a pile of folders. Matt guessed there were three
dozen files or possibly more. Most of them appeared quite thin.

Tall, blond and lean, Julian might be human, but Matt knew
even after only working with the man for less than a month that there were few
people he would trust more to watch his back. With an innate sense of danger
and when to cut one’s losses, Julian had been the back-up man for their team.
While it might have meant he was generally the last to see action, it had also
meant the lives of the rest of them had hung on his judgment calls.

It was not something Matthias, or the rest of their mingled
wizarding Enforcer and human police crew, took for granted. The ability to know
when enough was enough and they were fighting a losing battle was worth its
weight in gold and had quite possibly helped to save their lives on previous
missions.

Curious despite his hope for a bit of respite from work,
Matt closed the door behind him, walked over to the tiny window and leaned
against the sill, resigned to whatever was coming. Julian looked up to meet his
eyes. His friend’s gaze was gray and clear. Matt could read him well enough to
see that his friend and partner was not overly anxious, so the news couldn’t be
too bad, Matt reasoned.

The most recent job Matt had found himself working on with
Julian as his partner was supposed to be closed. Finished. Bad news on that
front had Matt’s mind leaping to the worst possible conclusion.

Matt spoke first as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Malone’s dead.” He swung his blue gaze from Julian to Captain Will and back
again, seeking reassurance. His words were half questions, half desperate
statement.

“He’s dead and the dead don’t come back, right?” Matt
reiterated a little more firmly than he had meant to. “You both look as if you
have to tell me he’s risen from the ashes and… He’s still gone, isn’t he?”

The last few weeks he had been working hard in a group of
six of the best Enforcers and police Special Ops crew tracking down a new drug
commonly called Jolt. The drug somehow infused magical essence into addicts
and, temporarily at least, gave humans a taste of what it felt like to have
magical powers.

However, as with any drug, there were drawbacks to the
perceived positives. The high it could give was a complex thing, as emotional
as it was chemical. A wide range of effects had been documented, such as
heightened senses, greater intuition, brief surges of magical ability and an
overall feeling of power. It had made it one of the most sought-after in the
human world. The substance and its side effects gave a whole new meaning to the
term “high”.

The bad news was that the drug quickly became addictive and
burned out the human who took it. Users needed to take steadily increasing
quantities of the drug as the highs became more elusive and the resulting
crashes took them lower. The feeling of “returning to normal” ensured addicts
craved the drug more than anything. Logic of how dangerous such a chemical was
or how they flirted with potential overdosing didn’t stand a chance against the
growing dependencies on these feelings.

Long after the physical symptoms of withdrawal had ceased,
the emotional hunger for how wonderful, insightful and alive they felt when on
the substance kept them coming back for more. Continued use was toxic for
humans and death was not an uncommon ending.

As a Tracker, Matt had helped to keep his fellow colleagues
safe, watching their asses and making sure other wizards and witches weren’t
Tracking
them
and couldn’t cause any surprises or ambushes.

The hodgepodge make-up of their crew, the first human and
wizard collaborative, had not only taken his fancy, but had proven to be an
excellent group with complementary talents that no one could take for granted.
In short, they totally kicked ass, and Matt had no plans of leaving, but
privately he had to admit that he was looking forward to this case officially
wrapping up so he could get some downtime.

Since they had destroyed the main Chicago-based lab that
manufactured the drug, as well as the main players, Matt and the others in the
crew had returned just a few days ago to write their reports and close the
case. Matt had been thinking fondly of a few weeks’ leave.

Matt only consulted for the Enforcers. Not a full-time
operative, he usually only took part in cases that interested him or when he
had a personal reason to give what help he could. An excellent Tracker, Matt
nevertheless knew he was one of many, and was at peace with that.

“Bastard thankfully hasn’t sat up and returned from the hell
he should be residing in,” Will agreed as he chewed his cigar. Matt heaved a
sigh of relief.

Mr. Sarke had been the middle-man between Malone, the
manufacturers and those who sold Jolt out on the streets in the city of
Chicago. Sarke, Matt presumed, was still being questioned by officers somewhere
in the precinct about his involvement and contacts. But it had been Malone
who’d been the mastermind behind everything.

Their crew had been fairly certain that without Malone the
drug would lose the flourishing niche it had found. Matt had seen some of the
devastation the drug had caused, and while he wasn’t naive enough to think this
would be the end of Jolt, he had hoped they had made a large enough hole in the
supply that it would prove difficult for it to bounce back too quickly.

“Drugs like this don’t just shrivel up and die ’cos we’ve
cut out the heart of the monster,” Will continued grimly as he chewed with a
vengeance on his cigar. “But we’ve dealt them a massive blow and the cleanup is
still happening. Decomposition of the drug still occurs within days of us
getting it into the lab, something to do with that damn magical essence, I
hear, but from what my folk on the street are telling me, the niche has moved
on. Jolt is damn near impossible for average people to source and its price has
quadrupled in the weeks since we got our hands on everything. It’s on its way
out. I figure it will remain an elitist, damnably expensive designer drug for
the rich and terminally stupid for the next few months as we mop up what we can
while the political powers that be hem and haw over what it is they want to
do.”

Tall, with military-short cropped blond hair and pale-blue
eyes, Captain Will Alcott defined hard-bitten ex-military. Somewhere in the
shady region of his forties and still built of solid muscle, Will might be
human but he had that undeniable aura of a leader. A strong, commanding,
capable man—when he shouted “jump”, anyone in his vicinity jumped. Matt had
smirked when he’d first heard Will insist he had given up many of his bad
habits—too many, likely—but chewing on cigars was the only one a man of his ilk
should not be forced to forgo, anti-smoking campaigns be damned.

Matt felt some of the tension that had crept into his
shoulders ease as Will gave what was for him a fully-fledged speech. Maybe Will
had called him in to say their crew would be disbanding and new assignments
would be forthcoming.

The thought of the crew going their separate ways hit Matt
with a sad pang. Despite looking forward to a break, truth be told, he would
miss the gang. Despite ribaldry and a hefty dose of lust between a few of the
members—Sage and Chase, Blade and Flame—they had worked as a team and had
slotted together perfectly in their partnerships. Such a fluid, easy grouping
that worked so astonishingly well as a team was not something to be blithe
about. It was not the norm, no matter how action adventure movies might portray
it.

“That’s brilliant news,” Matt replied, able to hear in his
own voice the mingled feelings his thoughts were provoking.

“Sage and Chase are in seemingly endless rounds of
bureaucratic Enforcer meetings,” Will continued, a small smirk flickering
around the corner of his mouth and the cigar he chewed. “You’d think a bunch of
magical folk would have worked out how to get rid of all the red tape. I think
your guys have even more of that rubbish than we do, and that’s not a
compliment in the least.”

“More traditions and deep-rooted ideologies basically
present themselves as more red tape and managers puffed up as self-important
assholes,” Matt replied with a laugh. “You can’t possibly expect me to believe
you’re surprised. Are they at least listening and not clapping their hands over
their ears and closing their eyes to the good we’ve done?”

“Oh, they’re impressed,” Will admitted. “They might be
moving as slow as molasses but they have made interested noises about building
more crossover teams.”

“Enforcers working in conjunction with the police can only
be a good thing,” Matt agreed. “And I presume Blade and Flame are having an
equally interesting time with your commissioner and political groups?”

Will snorted and chewed his cigar. “I don’t know how those
two are managing to retain their patience, but yeah. Things are moving slowly
on both fronts but our team is a perfect example of how these things can go
right. The Powers That Be are sitting up and taking notice. Finally.”

Matt nodded and cast a curious look at Julian, hoping his
partner could give him some indication of what this meeting was about. Julian
merely grinned, his gray eyes glinting with amusement. Matt wondered what Will
was about to lay on him. Will cleared his throat and fell silent for a brief
moment.

In anyone else, Matt would probably have thought it was
caution. However, in the time he’d spent working with Will, Matt had never
known the man to be shy or procrastinate. Sensible and circumspect when the
situation required it, yes, but cautious…not so much. The man was a
sledgehammer and a go-getter. Not one to pussy-foot around a touchy subject.

“I know you want to know what you’re doing here,” Will said
to break the silence he had created. “And I’ve got what should prove a fairly
brief assignment for you while these last few loose ends are being tied up.”

Matt struggled not to gape. Will appeared hesitant, a most
unusual look on him. Matt had seen Will in any number of moods, and all of them
had been marked by his strength of will and sense of commanding certainty.

“I’m sure every officer, regardless of where they work,
always has those few cases they think of as the one that got away,” Will began
again more firmly. He cleared his throat, chewed his cigar for a moment, then
pulled it out between two fingers to study the slender brown object as if his
mind were a million miles away.

Matt finally clicked why Will seemed to be acting strangely.

“This is personal,” Matt murmured, understanding. Will wrinkled
his nose before replacing the cigar in its usual corner of his mouth. He
reached out a hand and picked up the pile of folders that sat in front of
Julian.

“Over thirty suspected cases,” Will said again, this time
with his usual take-charge air. “In certain closed circles around here, she’s
called Shadow. A thief unlike any other this city has seen in decades, if not
longer. She prefers the elite and rich—none of the cases that have come to our
attention have been anything except Chicago’s ‘finest’ aristocracy—and she
seems to enjoy intimate knowledge of a complex range of security systems.”

Matt picked up the top folder from the pile Will held as
Julian joined in the conversation for the first time that morning. “These cases
from the last decade are technically only labeled as ‘suspected’ heists of
hers. We’ve kept it like that mainly because it’s never been proven one way or
the other whether it
is
her performing these particular heists. To some
extent, the fact we can’t prove it’s her and there is no useable evidence
whatsoever left behind at the scene adds up to proving it
is
her in
these specific cases.”

“Circular logic.” Matt laughed as he glanced down the file.
“You can’t really fault it, but it’s not the most solid of foundations to lay a
theory on. Do we actually know anything about her?”

“Not much,” Will replied. “We’re as certain as we can be
from the handful of physical evidence we’ve collected over the years that she
is a she. Height and weight indicate a female, as well as the size of some of the
windows she’s used for ingress.”

“Also, there is a decided lack of violence and she doesn’t
appear to have escalated at all in over a decade,” Julian added. “It could
merely be that she’s a pure professional, but that also lends credibility to
Shadow being a woman.”

“She does her research,” Matt commented idly as he flicked
briefly through the folders. “A broad range of security systems, and she only
takes what she appears to have come for—silverware, specific art—while leaving
other things behind. Like here, she could have easily pocketed almost a million
dollars’ worth of jewelry. All this and we really have no leads at all?”

Matt felt an inkling of curiosity about this thief. Patient,
knowledgeable and organized, she obviously knew how good she was and was
prepared to span her career out over a lifetime. Greedy or hasty she definitely
was not.

“You are I are going to spend the rest of the day going over
each of these files,” Julian replied. “Hopefully we might find common threads
we can track down.”

“Well, if she’s magical, you know I can Track her once I get
her signature or essence,” Matt agreed as he looked from Julian to Will.
“That’s not a problem at all. I’m a Tracker, it’s what I do. But why now? What
else is going on?”

“These last few weeks I’ve managed to watch how Enforcers
work and act in your own element,” Julian said. “I’ve seen you use your magic
and skills with a casualness that’s astonishing. It’s not glitter and lightning
striking—you act with terrifying cohesion. You do your thing and move on to the
next task. No mess, no fuss.”