Devious Magic (12 page)

Evan stepped around me. I heard running water then a cup was pushed into my hand. “Drink this,” said Evan, pressing it upwards to my lips. “Little sips.” When I’d drunk a couple of mouthfuls, I started to struggle to my feet and he helped me up, his hands gently firm on my hips.

“Toothpaste?” I croaked, leaning against the sink. My skin felt clammy and I was sure I was a fetching shade of puce.

Evan scrabbled in the drawer of the vanity and came up with a new tube of toothpaste and a brush in a translucent green plastic. We probably matched. I stripped off the cardboard packaging, squirted on some paste and brushed my teeth quickly, dropping them both by the side of the sink after I finished. I’d be a better houseguest, I promised myself.

“Let’s get you settled on the couch.” Evan kept one arm around me as I walked gingerly towards the living room. I didn’t think I was going to be sick again, but the thought of it was bad enough and I was grateful that Evan kept his movements gentle.

The whole day had been a nightmare and, on top of feeling frightened for Annalise, I felt wretched. My muscles ached, my throat felt hoarse and I had a shape-shifter’s dried blood in my hair.

“I need to change my clothes,” I said. I needed a shower too.

Evan hesitated for a moment. “What do you want to wear?”

“Jeans and a t-shirt, please. Comfy clothing.”

“Done.” I half expected him to click his fingers, but the only indication I got that my clothes were disappearing then being replaced was a brief whisper of cool air. Instantly, I was in clean, comfortable clothing and feeling absolutely shattered. At least, Evan had the good sense to put me in yoga pants and a long sleeved cotton t-shirt. Normally, given the option, he liked me in a dress.

“Can you do something about my hair too? There’s blood in it.”

“No problem.”

Lowering myself to the sofa, I struggled for something to say, something that wouldn’t be angry or show me up any further. My boyfriend held my hair back. I felt my cheeks heat and my eyes well with tears again.

Evan settled us on the couch. “Hey, don’t cry. It’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know that.” Guilt weighed so heavily on me, I was sure I’d gained a few extra pounds.

“No, I don’t,” he conceded, his arm tightening around me as I rested my head on his shoulder. I slipped my arm across his waist, willing to put aside my anger for a moment in return for the comforting presence of his body. “But I’ll do everything I can to find out what happened and, if Annalise is alive, I promise you, we’ll get her back.”

“I need to find her. This wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for me.”

“You don’t know that. Annalise knows what a werewolf’s life is like. She’s run into danger in her life and she’s survived. If she’s alive, she’ll fight.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. The Brotherhood think nothing of killing women; they’ll think nothing of killing Annalise if she gets in the way.” No matter what I said it all came back to one thing: if they hadn’t gotten rid of her already.

“If she’s alive, they won’t kill her, especially if they think using her as bait will get you.”

Evan made a good point. I scrambled to calculate how long she might have. “So, assuming she’s alive, and assuming they’re watching the airport, they’ll keep her alive at least until they know whether I got on the plane or not.”

“They most likely will assume you won’t get on the plane, but they’ll be sure that you get there. That should add another couple of days.”

“Three days,” I said. “Seventy-two hours, maybe. Great.”

“Try not to think about it. Will you be okay here for a while? I need to go to my office and talk to Micah. It’s just off the hall, so I won’t be far. I’ll call Gage too; see if they’ve found anything yet or gotten any leads yet.”

I nodded just to show that I heard him, and I’d be okay though I didn’t want to think too closely about what he meant by “found anything.” I didn’t want to be on my own but there were things more important than I.

“Just shout if you need anything, and go wherever you like. The kitchen is through that door if you want anything to eat or drink. I’ll send Étoile back if you want?”

“Not if she’s more useful to you.”

“Then I’ll keep her until she starts turning Micah dangerous.” Evan tried a smile, and I made a weak effort at returning it. He hugged me a little tighter, dropping a kiss onto the top of my head. “And try not to be mad at me until we know everything. I didn’t mean to bring you here against your will. I really was just trying to bring you to the safest place I could think of in those few seconds.”

I was glad he didn’t add
don’t worry
because really, what else could I do?

After settling my head on the arm of the couch, I listened long after the door of Evan’s office – at least, that’s what I assumed it was – clicked shut. A sense of weariness swept over me suddenly and I yawned. It had been an incredibly long day, filled with lots of strange things. I’d been attacked, shimmered, attacked again, then swept halfway across the country.

My skin still tingled slightly from the method Evan used to transport. Daemons and witches were different beings, though we both looked human. We could do similar things, but we did them in different ways and he understood my strengths far more than I understood his. I much preferred my method of shimmering, but Evan’s was far more powerful and precise. He only shimmered with me when I’d have been in danger otherwise.

What felt like minutes later, I jerked awake. Étoile was sitting opposite me, tapping away on a laptop.

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked, looking around groggily as I rubbed my eyes. Then it hit me. Annalise could still be out there somewhere and I had been fast asleep on a comfy sofa in a safe, warm, house. I couldn’t have felt like a bigger traitor.

Étoile looked up. “Just a couple of hours.”

Shuffling, I swung my feet to the ground so I was sitting upright. “Any news?”

Étoile clicked another couple of keys then closed the laptop, leaving it across her knees as she folded her hands on top. “Gage’s pack swept several miles around the area where Annalise was kidnapped and they didn’t find anything... in the way of bodies, that is. They caught her scent and tracked her to the airstrip where it vanished. In light of that, we think she’s definitely on that plane.”

I didn’t need to say it out loud but I did anyway. “So they’ve definitely taken her to England.”

“Looks that way. It will be several more hours before they arrive.” Étoile’s tone seemed apologetic. Nothing much shook her, but her voice was low and she seemed upset. “I tried to get a vision, but nothing came.”

“We have to go to England, Étoile,” I leaned forward, beseeching her. “If the Brotherhood captured Annalise in wolf form and knows what she is, there’s no telling what they’ll do to her. The note said she’d bite it. That can’t just be a lame ass joke!”

“What are you going to do when you get there? Hmm, Stella? Are you going to
reason
with the Brotherhood? Are you going to ask them politely to let Annalise go, and you too? Or maybe offer yourself as an exchange?” Étoile shook her head and her words were harsh. “If they know what Annalise is, you can be sure they’ll never let her go. She’ll just be something else they can hunt and kill.”

“So you expect me to sit here and do nothing?”

“That’s exactly what I expect you to do, Stella. Let us get a plan together, then we’ll do something. But if we go to Hawkscroft unprepared, we’re all dead.”

Seven

We were at an impasse. There was no point arguing with Étoile, not when she spoke in that stern tone. Plus I had to face facts. Positives first: Now we knew where Annalise was, we were almost positive that she was alive and would stay that way at least for the hours she was on the plane. After that, there was a strong chance they’d continue to keep her alive if only to lure me to Hawkscroft. On the negative side, my brain reminded me all too dolefully, I was in Texas, nowhere near where I needed to be. I didn’t have a plan and it wasn’t just the Brotherhood against me. My boyfriend and friends didn’t want me to go to the aid of Annalise either. For the first time, in a very long time, I felt horribly alone. Even worse, I felt afraid and incapable.

Given my current mood, and clearly not up to an argument, none that I was going to win anyway, I surrendered. After a few minutes of silence, Étoile went back to whatever she was doing on the laptop and I went in search of Evan.

Following a couple of false starts in which I opened the door on the bathroom, then a closet, I knocked on the door nearest the front door and Evan called, “Come.” He had been sitting behind a desk, but he stood and smiled when I came in. However, he seemed a little wary of whatever I might say.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m awake.” Well, duh, he could see that. What I meant was
tell me you have a plan, please
.

“How are you feeling?”

“Okay.”

“Good. Micah interrogated the shape-shifter while you were sleeping.”

“Do I want to know what that means?” I tried hard not to shiver, especially once I spotted Micah sitting in the chair closest to me. He scrutinised me with cold eyes.

“No,” said Evan, at the same time that Micah said, “The shifter is very, very angry. Fortunately, the arm can be reattached.”

I suppressed an immediate urge to say sorry. Perhaps I was oversimplifying things, but the shifter was attempting to kill me and I was only trying to escape. The loss of a limb versus my loss of life? Well, at least one of those could be sewn back on if it were lost. I couldn’t say I felt much sympathy for the shifter.

“We haven’t ascertained who the shifter was under the employ of... yet.” Micah made the last word sound horribly ominous. “But you can be assured the prisoner is now...”

“Don’t say ‘armless.’ It’s not funny.” To emphasise my point, I rolled my eyes. Micah grinned. It wasn’t pleasant.

“The prisoner is no longer a threat,” he finished. “The job was to get you to the airstrip and hand you over.”

“The same place they took Annalise?”

“Yes.”

“So it was the Brotherhood.”

Evan nodded again.

I looked around the room while I mulled that over. Like the living room, it was sparse. A broad oak desk and a big, expensive-looking, leather chair behind it. Evan stood, resting his arms on the back of it as he leaned in. Two more chairs in front, one of which was occupied by Micah. A row of bookcases covered the wall behind Evan, stuffed with books and a few ancient looking objects. A tall plant filled a large basket in one corner and the window looked to the rear, over a small courtyard. This was a man who definitely did not do mall shopping.

“The shifter didn’t know who the employer was. She was subbed out,” explained Evan.

I dropped into the chair adjacent to Micah’s and absorbed that for a moment while Evan and Micah conferred about something the shape-shifter said. I wasn’t going to waste time wondering why they had a contract to find me and deliver me for money. What struck me was that it sounded uncomfortably like the way Evan once described his job. He even showed me how he could change bodies and appear as though he were a different person. At the same time, he showed me how to recognise the true being underneath. That was what confirmed the shifter’s identity, and probably saved me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Evan doing things like the mysterious shifter sent to kidnap me.

Looking at him, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to ask. For a little while longer, I wanted to stay in my cosy little bubble where I had a boyfriend who loved and protected me, and never participated in frightening, and quite possibly illegal, things in the name of business.

Perhaps I was being stupid. Perhaps I was just waking up and the world would never be the way I wanted it to be. It was full of scary, hostile beings and I had to learn faster, or learn the hard way. I seemed to be having a strange little epiphany. Right now though, I’d have to leave the soul searching for later. There were more important things to tackle.

“Does that mean the Brotherhood know what about shifters?” I asked, wondering if they’d discovered Annalise’s secret yet.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Evan moved around the table to sit on his desk, one leg still on the floor. “They could have hired an agency who works with freelancers like this shifter. The middleman may never pass on who’s working for them, and the client would never ask.”

“Do you know the agency?”

“A rival of mine. They touch work I won’t do. I prefer to keep my business above the law. Kidnapping law-abiding women isn’t a service advertised in my catalogue.”

“Glad to hear it.” I paused, then readied myself to say what I knew would be fruitless. “I need to get to England.”

“We’ve been through this. It’s too dangerous. You aren’t at full power and you can’t take on the Brotherhood alone. You’d be risking too much.”

“But I...”

“No, Stella. This is not up for discussion.” When I opened my mouth to protest, Evan held up a hand, silencing me. “I mean it, Stella. It’s too risky. I can’t allow you to go.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Allow me?” I repeated incredulously.
Who did he think he was to give or deny me permission to do anything?

We glared at each other, in a deadlock. Evan had explained enough to me that I knew roughly what we were dealing with, but he seemed clueless about what would happen at Hawkscroft. It was that cluelessness that made it difficult to formulate a plan. “Can’t your employees do something?” I tried not to look at Micah, because I doubted he wanted to be told what to do anymore than I did. “They’re experienced in stake-outs and catching bad guys, aren’t they?”

“Everyone is working their asses off keeping the business running for me, so I can be with you.” Evan closed his eyes briefly like he realised what he’d just said, and how it sounded.

It stung, mostly because we had an audience and I could think of a whole bunch of people I’d rather argue in front of than Micah. As we stared at each other, I tried to think of a way to convey that I never asked Evan to step in and teach me, not at the beginning, when I was a neophyte. I also never demanded that he stay, even though I saw his growing restlessness, but I came up with nothing. Having it spelled out in plain words was another uncomfortable truth I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear, but it did remind me we would be having a conversation about this very soon.