Entangled With the Thief (4 page)

That seemed to satisfy Maya. “And how did it go with the thief?” Luke wanted to give her an award for keeping the distaste out of her words. She had been absolutely opposed to his idea. And then she’d been offended when he didn’t let her convince him that he was wrong.

Luke remembered that kiss. Of all the things that happened, it should have been the least important, but it made him think of impossible things like hope, the future, something outside of the life he now lived. “She’ll be trouble, but just the kind we need.”

After finishing with Maya, Luke went straight to Cassie. She wasn’t yet awake, so he used the time to give Peklo a call. The vampire leader didn’t answer. Luke left a message and considered his duty done.

His hand was on the doorknob before he had second thoughts. Sitting next to Cassie for the rest of the day wouldn’t make her any better. He tried to find anything to do, but this thoughts kept ricocheting between his sister, his thief, and the damned hope that everything would turn out alright.

An hour later he heard the screams.

He ran, knocking aside one of his pack mates and barreling through the door. Cassie lay on the bed, the sheets wrapped around her knees and ankles almost forming a knot. She let out a banshee shriek, her body arching off the bed before falling back down. She cried and cried.

Luke got close, he wasn’t afraid for himself, but he didn’t want to hurt her. He looked behind to see the gathered crowd in the door and hallway. He met Mick’s eyes. “Get Murphy, now.” The boy took off running without further prompting.

Cassie breathed in and out quickly, panting on the edge of hyperventilating. Luke smoothed back her hair. She was covered in sweat and her shirt stuck to her body. He needed to get her changed into something else –  it couldn’t be healthy to be stuck in damp clothes. Her eyes snapped open, and for a second they were completely black. But she blinked again and they reverted to their normal brown. Luke hoped it had been a trick of the light, her pupils expanded larger than normal.

Help was coming. Tomorrow.

Cassie sucked in a breath. “It hurts,” she moaned. “Trying to keep it out.”

Luke had to lean close to hear, her words slurred and quiet. “What are you trying to keep out?” he asked.

She opened her mouth, but shuddered again before she could say anything. Luke didn’t try to make her talk, it would only hurt her more.

He should have forced the thief to come back with him.

Mel knew to avoid the demon horse statue at Denver International Airport. As far as she knew, it wasn’t actually a demon, and she didn’t think it was cursed, but plenty of lore surrounded it and she was already in enough trouble. She met Krista in the arrivals terminal. The witch’s flight from Washington D.C. had arrived and the petite woman was already waiting for Mel.

Krista was power and pain in concentrated form. She stood barely over five feet tall and her spiked hair gave her another inch. If not for the perpetually confrontational look on her face, she might have seemed sweet. And Mel knew the woman would punch her if she ever called her a pixie out loud. Krista wore skinny jeans and an oversized t-shirt. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder and could have easily been one of the college students travelling over their autumn holidays.

Not even the silver protection charm she wore on a necklace that dipped to her mid-chest suggested that she was merely an adept witch.

They took a seat on one of the benches outside baggage claim and Krista put up a sound ward. “Usually when someone asks for five minutes, they don’t make you fly halfway across the country to use them.”

And Mel was glad that she’d come. She knew that Krista didn’t have to, that the bond between them was battered on the edge of being completely torn up. But twice now she’d come when Mel called. And that meant something. “You know as well as I do that there are ears everywhere.”

“You’re lucky I wasn’t busy,” was all she said. “Now, why aren’t you tied up in some lion’s basement having your entrails slowly pulled out? You’re too close to his territory for them not to know you’re here.”

“And you still came?” Mel smiled. She couldn’t help it.

“Wouldn’t be my first time pulling your ass out of the fire. Now talk, your time is almost up.”

Mel pulled out the printout she’d made of the picture from her phone. She’d dumped the phone in a mall outside of the city after popping out the battery and sim card. So far, the tail that Luke had put on her hadn’t been able to catch up. “This is a hex, right?”

She’d spoken with certainty to the alpha, but a witch would always have more magical knowledge. Krista held the printout close to her face. The quality wasn’t great, Mel had used the hotel business center, and their printer had been purchased shortly after the printing press went out of style. But it should have been good enough to give Krista an idea. After a few minutes of studying the design on Cassie’s back, Krista looked up, her face pale. “This was
on
someone? That is some person’s back?” She sounded horrified.

And that scared Mel. Krista didn’t freak easily, and her skill with magic was some of the best for her age. “An eighteen year old girl. I’ve been hired to find out how it happened and fix her.”

Krista raised an eyebrow, she knew all of Mel’s tricks. “Hired by who?”

There was no use in hiding it. “Luke Torres. The victim is his sister Cassie, it happened sometime after she was kidnapped and before she was returned safely yesterday night.” Mel watched Krista carefully while she spoke. From the slight fist she made, Mel knew that Krista would have punched her in the shoulder – hard – if it weren’t for the audience. “I happened to be in the area to see the markings. Luke and another one of his pack mates thought they were just bruises. I snapped a picture and they could see the hex after that.”

Krista took a deep breath and held up a hand to stop Mel from speaking further. “You went…
back
… to his property? And you want me to do a job with you when you’re clearly suicidal!” She spoke the last bit in a harsh whisper.

“I went back to get my scry stone,” Mel explained, “I had no way of knowing that there would be a hexed teenager on the premises.”

She watched Krista in silence. The witch didn’t respond, but Mel could see the entire conversation happening behind her eyes. It was one of the benefits of knowing someone for more than twenty years. “What’s my guarantee that he doesn’t throw me in a dungeon or whatever the second we step into his territory?”

Mel had to stop herself from smiling. Krista was in. “I’ve negotiated safe passage as part of the deal.”

Krista stood up. “Then we’re wasting daylight.”

The drive to Eagle Creek passed smoothly, and quietly. Each time Mel tried to start up conversation, Krista would change the radio station or turn up the volume. Except for one request to stop to use the bathroom, Krista kept her silence.

Maya met the two women and led them inside. “Who is your friend?” she asked Mel.

“I’m a consultant. My name is Krista, you don’t need to know anything else.” Krista smiled sweetly, and Mel decided to say nothing.

“Actually, I need a lot more. Krista Anders, right? Witch, 31, daughter of Tina Anders, and suspected thief.” Maya ticked off the facts with a sense of glee.

“If you knew, why did you ask?” Krista crossed her arms. “I’m here to do the job.”

“This is my home. I don’t allow strangers.”

A man cleared his throat. Mel smelled Luke and had to bite her lip to keep from grinning. What a strange reaction. What
wasn’t
strange was the languid desire that flowed through her. She was getting used to that. “Actually, it’s my home. Let them in, Maya.”

Maya took a look at her alpha and stepped aside. Luke led them up two flights of stairs and down a hallway. Mel recognized it –  they were right next to his quarters. “Is Cassie alright?” she asked.

Luke stiffened. “I wish you had come yesterday.”

Luke led Mel and her friend into Cassie’s room. He thought the small woman was a witch. Who else would Mel call to help with a hex? And he couldn’t be certain, but it was a close enough thing. This woman had helped Mel rob him. And she had probably given his thief the teleportation charm that let Mel escape him when he chased her.

And he had let them both into his house.

If that made him foolish, so be it. He’d play the fool a hundred times to save Cassie.

Neither woman reacted when he opened the door, at least, not in the extreme. He thought he saw Mel’s mouth pull tight to one corner, but he blinked and it was gone. There would be no hysterics from these two. They were consummate professionals, even if his only exposure to them involved being their victim.

That meant they were good.

“We had to cuff her early this morning.” Luke hadn’t asked where Maya got the fuzzy pink handcuffs. Or why she had a pair of fuzzy handcuffs modified to restrain a shapeshifter. A shapeshifter could have broken out of them with little trouble, but an eighteen year old human didn’t have the strength. And with her hands wrenched above her head she didn’t have the leverage either.

Sweat plastered Cassie’s blonde hair to her face and her eyes seemed to burn with an almost red inner light. Though she was bound to the bed, she couldn’t stop moving. Right then she was almost calm, only squirming a little and not trying to break the hold of the cuffs. Even with the padding her wrists were bruised. She babbled a little when they came in, but the words made no sense, just random Spanish and English that formed no coherent thought.

Luke looked at Mel and saw sympathy in her green eyes. That was something. “She stopped talking – well, saying anything that made sense – a few hours ago.”

Krista took no time in assessing his sister. She crossed the room while Mel stood back with him. Krista looked over her shoulder, “I’ll need to touch her to determine the nature of the hex.”

Luke nodded.

“She may scream. This will probably hurt.” She didn’t wait for a second round of approval. Krista grabbed a small wooden chair and sat next to the bed. The hair on Luke’s arm stood on edge as something decidedly not normal entered the room. “Cassie –” The power faded and Krista looked back at Luke once more. “I need her full name.”

He was surprised she didn’t know it already. “Cassandra Torres-Jameson.”

Krista nodded and turned back to the bed. Power swept through the room once more. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mel fold one arm across the front of her body and grip her elbow, balling her other hand in a fist. Luke didn’t know what made him do it, but he stepped just a little closer to her and brushed the back of his hand against her fist. Her hand loosened and he almost saw some of the tension ease out of her.

“Cassandra Torres-Jameson,” said Krista, her voice echoing even in the small room, “Hear me.”

Luke looked down when Mel grabbed his hand. She didn’t. He decided not to make a big deal about it, instead turning his attention to the witch. Krista spoke in a deep voice, but he couldn’t understand what she said. At first he was convinced it was English, but after focusing for a moment it seemed to morph into Spanish, and then into something else entirely. But it was all gibberish, he couldn’t tell what she was doing or saying to his sister.

“Try not to focus on the words,” Mel whispered. “If you can’t do magic you can’t understand it.”

That wasn’t the answer Luke wanted, but he wasn’t an expert on spell craft. “How do you know so much about magic?” He didn’t have a right to ask. He didn’t have any rights when it came to Mel, but it wasn’t going to stop him from asking.

Mel pulled her hand from his and laced her two hands together in front of her. “Cost of doing business,” she said by way of explanation.

Clearly that was a lie. But asking now would get Luke nothing, and part of him thought that when it came to this thief, he would want it all. Crazy thought, but it was there anyway.

The power drained from the room once more and Krista stood, turning away from Cassie and facing Luke and Mel. Her face bore a grim expression, her eyes tired. “I can soothe Cassie’s pain,” she said, “And I can counteract some of the more obvious manifestations of the hex. But I will need time to put together everything to completely rid her of it.”

For once Luke let himself hope. Her words belied her expression, “So you can make her better?” he asked.

Krista hesitated and Luke gritted his teeth before she answered, “I can remove the hex. But I don’t know if she’ll survive. Cassie has given me her consent to try.”

Luke took a step toward her, but the petite witch held her ground. “If you kill my sister, you will be a marked woman.” Mel placed a hand on his arm and he whirled around to face her. “What?”

“Krista won’t kill Cassie. The hex will. If anything happens to Cassie, it won’t be because we didn’t try. So calm the fuck down right now.” She looked him in the eye while she gave the command, her green eyes lit with an inner fire.

If anyone had been in the room with them Luke would have needed to reprimand her. No one gave the alpha an order in his own territory, especially not an outsider who’d already stolen from him. But the strangest thing happened –  instead of anger, Luke smiled. It wasn’t completely happy, but that was in the mish-mash of emotions whirling around his head. A part of him liked that Mel was strong enough to boss him around.

And if she and her witch saved his sister, he’d be in her debt forever.

“We’ll need Marco’s powder.” Krista addressed this to Mel, ignoring the temperamental lion between them.

Mel shrugged with a grin. “Not too hard to steal.”

That shook Luke out of whatever he was feeling, at least for the moment. “Is theft your first instinct for everything? Do you knock over a gas station when you need a gallon of milk?” It came out as a criticism, but he truly wanted to know.

The only time he’d ever stolen something was when he was nine years old and at the supermarket. His mother couldn’t afford the piece of candy he wanted, so he’d taken one for himself. When she found it, she’d made him write a note of apology and told him that she’d sent it back to the store. He was grounded for three weeks and forced to do extra English lessons for a month. Casually speaking about stealing anything just sat wrong with him.

“Why would I steal milk?” asked Mel, her tone confused. “I don’t steal from humans.” She said, “Well, not usually.”

“What’s Marco’s powder?” he asked. They didn’t have time to examine Mel’s limited morality.

Krista explained, “A witch named Marco Aguilar developed this powder which can counteract hexes about a hundred years ago. It’s the only thing that works if you can’t get the original witch to undo the hex. And he guards it like a fucking dragon. He’ll sell it to some people, but he hates other witches. And he won’t sell to strangers.”

“The good thing,” said Mel, “Is that it’s so magically volatile that it can’t be protected by any magic. Krista was on a team that stole it before.”

Mel and Krista shared a look that Luke couldn’t decipher. He wondered what the history was between them. He turned to Krista. “So you can take it again?”

The witch shook her head and shot a quick glance back at his sister. “I need to stay with Cassie. Mel can head it up. Who do you think we bring in?” she asked. “There are a few people we can trust. Jo hates Marco enough to do it.”

They wanted to bring in more members of their thieves guild? Into his territory? That wasn’t happening. “I’ll go with you.”

Mel laughed. “You just balked at stealing
milk
.”

Luke let steel into his voice. “She’s my sister. I’ll go.”

Behind them Cassie screamed. Luke lunged for the bed, shoving aside Krista in his race to do so. For the first time in hours her words made sense. But it wasn’t her voice that emerged from her mouth. “Meet at the clearing where you found the girl. Friday. Midnight.” The voice was masculine, deep, not anything that Cassie could imitate. But she repeated the words twice before slumping down into unconsciousness.