Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2) (21 page)

The disk hit Noah’s face. Noah flinched—and his eyebrows sprouted like weeds, growing curlicues around his eyes.

Pan snorted.

“What the fuck was that?” the alpha growled.

“Something to knock a little sense into you.” Chest heaving, Gabriel put up both palms. “Let’s talk this out.”

“No fucking way.” Noah grew spikes for claws and slashed at Gabriel.

The he-witch feinted back then threw a red-paper amulet at the alpha. “Ignite!”

The disk made a tiny
poof,
a single wisp of smoke the only vestige of its existence.

Gabriel hissed. “I
really
miss my belt.”

The alpha half-shifted, huge wolf-jaw clacking.

All the air left Emma’s lungs. Her mate was threatened by an alpha’s inhuman strength.

Protect him.
Her iota talent rose like a furious tide inside her.

She throttled it back.
Never again.

Propelled by monstrous, human-wolf thighs, Noah charged.

Protect him!
Fear loosened the reins of her control. Her talent crashed against her willpower like a raging surf.

“Fuck you, Noah.” Gabriel dodged, digging out every talisman he had, and tossed the whole load into the air between them. “Trigger!”

Charms went off like firecrackers. Glitter filled the air, along with a dozen tea bags, the whiz of a bottle rocket, a roast turkey, and five skeins of double-ply yarn.

Noah swatted at everything like a swarm of gnats, his claws tangling in his still-growing eyebrows. With a tremendous roar he redoubled his efforts, tearing out hair, shredding yarn.

He yanked free and leaped onto Gabriel’s chest.

Gabriel fell backward. Snarling, Emma surged to assist him, only to run into Pan’s restraining arms. Her mate landed hard enough to knock the wind from him.

Noah fell to his knees beside Gabriel and raised a handful of talons to slash Gabriel’s exposed throat.

Emma’s heart stopped. She beat a frenzied windmill of arms against Pan’s hold.

Gabriel managed to half-block the alpha’s slash. Noah’s claws dug into her mate’s cheek, his blood welling. The scent sent her heart kicking against her ribs, pumping fast as a hummingbird.

Both Noah’s arms winged back to drive the killing strike. The blow would impale claws deep into warm meat…
dead
meat…

He’s killing my mate.

“No!” Fear let her rage tear loose. Her blood boiled, her pounding heart pumping her talent through her body. Fury exploded like a burst thermometer in her brain.

The berserker roared free.

Its fangs tore from her gums and its claws from her fingers. It/her vision ran red, death blackening its brain. Clutching the journal like a shield, it shoved Pan aside as easily as a rag doll.

The berserker crashed into Noah with a full body tackle, momentum lifting him from Emma’s mate and smashing him into the wall. It rode him sliding to the floor, fist pounding his face.

The alpha tried to lever up, but berserker Emma wanted him down.

She/it grabbed the journal two-handed to smack into his snout.

Last moment, he raised his arm to block. His fist, still clasping the pendant, smashed into the book.

A sharp
bang
underscore the hit, a terrible sound that, like the report of a gun or the crunch of metal in a car crash, was unforgettable—because it signaled a life completely derailed.

Automatically, she/it tore the journal away. Somehow Noah’s enameled wolf stuck to it, and the pendant was yanked from his hand.

With a soul-rending howl, Noah grabbed for the pendant. Berserker Emma only saw him grabbing for the journal.

She/it planted its skull in his face.

With a sigh, he went unconscious, fists falling limp to the floor.

Death to mate-threat.
Berserker Emma raised a hand full of razor-sharp talons to slash the alpha’s throat down to the bone. To send fountains of hot, rich blood spurting, to dance in it, to revel in the glory of gouged and bleeding flesh…

“Emma!” Gabriel’s arms opened wide as he leaped for her, Pan and Mason behind him.

Berserker Emma only saw more attackers, the hands grabbing her/it as enemies trying to pull it away from its prey. Snarling, the berserker twisted in the grips of three strong males.

It flung up one hand to slash the enemies. Its claws spat blood, spattering Gabriel’s face.

He flinched.

The berserker’s turbocharged eyes spotlighted that terrible sight—its mate, flinching from it.

Emma’s submerged awareness was shocked awake. Her mate was afraid of her.

Beast.

As the three males wrestled her off Noah to the ground, fury died to shame. The berserker faded, leaving her weak and trembling.

She’d vowed
never again.
Lost so easily in the terror of the moment. She looked away, not wanting to see the disgust in Gabriel’s eyes.

Or worse, the fear.

Batshit insane brute.

Chapter Nineteen

Gabriel swept Emma up off Noah into a hug, so tight she went, “
Erp.
”

“You stopped him. We’re okay. We’re all okay.”

Shock invaded every cell as she dangled from his strong arms. Hadn’t he caught her berserk rage?

“Did you hear that bang?” Goodwin’s voice was muffled by Gabriel’s muscled bulk and the whoosh-whoosh of her own heart.

Pan, more matter-of-fact, said, “You’d better let her go, Gabriel. She’s starting to turn blue.”

Gabriel’s arms released her so suddenly her feet stuttered before she found her balance. “Are
you
okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said automatically.

“Oh. Okay.” His honed cheeks were stained with embarrassment when he moved away.

Because he’d been hugging her so tight? Or, as he finally moved to wipe the blood spatter from his face, because he was ashamed of her?

In Michigan, she’d been able to read him effortlessly. Now, it seemed the more important the question, the less sure she was.

Beyond Gabriel, the raven familiar Bram stared at her, his jaw hanging, his eyes blinking rapidly. Apparently this wisdom creature had never seen a tiny iota go berserk on an alpha.

“Day-um.” Beta Mason threw off his amazement first to kneel at Noah’s side to check over. “Good thing this isn’t sacred ground.” He peeled open one golden eye, which spun in its socket.

“Is he okay?” Emma asked.

“Knocked out, but he’ll be fine.”

“Nice bit of Hulking,” Pan drawled to Emma.

“Thanks?” She glanced at Gabriel. He’d snatched a second tissue and was wiping his glasses. Frowning, his gaze was anywhere but her. She opened her mouth to ask,
Are you ashamed of me?

“What was that bang?” Goodwin repeated.

“I’m not sure,” Gabriel said. “It triggered a loud boom on the etheric too.”

Pan’s brows shot into his hairline. “A magical boom? Like ‘Hey, Enforcer-fuck, look here’? Damn it, Gabriel.” The familiar mimed activating a talisman, or maybe changing channels with a remote. “Let’s hop into your pocket workout room before certain dickwads trace it here.”

“Can’t.” Gabriel shook his head impatiently. “Besides having used up the talisman, certain dickwads have a way to spy into the jail—and the spyglass somehow threads into
other
bubble
universes.”

“Really?” That came from all three familiars, intrigued rather than urgent. Pan said, “How—?”

“Dunno. The portals opened near each other? But it means the workout dimension is no good.”

“Then at least get away from the physical proximity of the metaphysical You-Are-Here bang, ’kay?” Pan smacked palms against Gabriel’s back and started shoving him toward the door. “In case Aunt Linda’s yarn supply or whatever she’s tying him up with has run out.”

Gabriel dug in his heels long enough to grab Emma’s hand, to tow her with him.

Discussing her talent would have to wait. Another thing to add to the growing list of unfinished topics. At this rate, it would take a lifetime to talk them all through.

She wanted that lifetime with him, quite desperately.

As they ran for the entrance, Pan said, “Your aunt’s car—”

“May take hours to get running.” Gabriel smacked open the front door. “Do we have hours, or even minutes?”

“Doubt it.”

“I know where.” Goodwin skirted them and took the lead. “Follow me.”

Only the four of them had emerged.

“What about Noah?” Emma glanced east as she spoke, the B-and-B coming into view. Hopefully, if Ryder was on his way, they’d see him before he caught sight of them.

“Noah’s beta and familiar will care for him.” Gabriel secured her hand in a more solid grip and hurried her across the pavers toward the intersection of Third and Pine.

Clutching his hand like a lifesaver, she kept her gaze on the B-and-B. So she was first to see the slender, over-tailored form emerge from the doorway.

Exactly when they were crossing Pine and at their most vulnerable.

She tugged Gabriel’s hand and pointed as the Enforcer’s pale head turned west. Toward them.

Gabriel, expression grim, had already seen. He lifted his free hand into the air. His wand appeared in it, aimed at Ryder.

Acid cascaded into Emma’s stomach. She remembered Ryder’s first reaction to Gabriel’s wand.
“You’ll pay for that, Light.”

“Gabriel, don’t,” she whispered.

Pan jerked a
nuh-uh
across his throat then tried to swat the stick out of Gabriel’s hand.

The he-witch cut his familiar a furious glare but did not release the wand.

This time it wouldn’t be accidental. This time Gabriel was really fighting. Despite his ankle limiter.

She swallowed hard
.
Her wizard prince could normally beat the numb nuts with his little finger. But this particular numb nuts was backed by Council magic.

Things were about to get ugly.

“Oh, yoo-hoo!”

Linda Blue bustled out of the B-and-B. “Yoo-hoo, Mr. Ryder! I know what that bang was.”

Ryder’s sweeping gaze, a bare millimeter from detecting them, stopped. Frustration etched itself on his features, so stark it was visible even across the street before he spun toward the round little woman. “
What?
”

“Well, I was conducting an experiment in my bookstore—oh, don’t worry, I haven’t involved any mundanes—but one must have one’s little hobbies, yes? I was developing formulations of glitter bombs for surprise parties, you see? It was
supposed
to go off half an hour ago so obviously this one didn’t make the cut.”

“But the etheric trail leads
that
way—”

“Exactly!” She snared his arm in a grip that looked like the Jaws of Life. “How else would it be a surprise?”

“That makes no sense!”

“Of course it does. Now, we were discussing my niece Sophia. Please come back inside, my old bones can’t stand the chill.” She tugged him into motion.

“What chill? It’s August, for shit’s sake—”

“Exactly!” Linda’s tone was bright. “You’re so smart. So is Sophia. I’m worried the poor child will be bored silly in that bubble jail you built for her—oh, I’m certain it has all the comforts and amenities of home, but nothing substitutes for a good bag of yarn and some knitting needles, am I right?” She dragged him back inside the B-and-B.

While Linda had nattered and generally distracted the Enforcer, Gabriel hustled Emma across the intersection and into the relative safety of the buildings’ shadows, Pan and Goodwin darting in after them.

Goodwin murmured, “Thank the stars for your aunt.”

“She always did have extraordinary timing,” Gabriel muttered. “Though usually only when Sophia and I were getting in trouble.”

The panther familiar raised a black brow. “And this incident is different how?”

“Wiseass.”

Emma checked her father’s journal to make sure it was all right. Noah’s enameled wolf pendant was cemented to the cover. She poked at it. It refused to budge. “The wolf is stuck.” She showed Gabriel.

He frowned. “Locked writing, Avignon is involved, death magic, and now this? I don’t like it at all. We need to check your journal out. Back to the bookstore.”

“Right.” Pan strode off.

“
Wrong.
” Goodwin snared his arm and whirled him back. “When Noah wakes up, his first thought will be to retrieve his pendant. And where is the first place he’ll look?”

“The bookstore,” Gabriel said. “Okay, where’s totally unexpected? The Misses Jamies?”

“When he doesn’t find us at the bookstore, he’ll want information,” Goodwin said. “The Misses is the second place he’ll go.”

“Which leaves where?” Gabriel dug a hand through his hair in frustration. “Bonnie and Clyde’s? Hiding out in a corner of FreshFresh?”

Goodwin smirked. “The pet store.”

Gabriel gaped. “
Jayden’s
pet store? You’re kidding!”

“No, it’s perfect,” Pan said. “Ever since that pink bow incident, no way Noah will ever step foot in there.”

Gabriel snorted. “No way
I’ll
step foot in there if I don’t have to. The man’s a
jerk
looking for a spot marked
off.
”

“What’s the pink bow incident?” Emma said.

“Happened when Noah got good-fairied by Linda. Long story.”

“You want to investigate the journal, yes?” Goodwin said, “Jayden has a sound-dampened grooming booth where we can talk privately.”

Gabriel was shaking his head. “He also has a suspiciously odd aura on the etheric.”

Pan made a disgusted
tch.
“Is this a tennis match? Pick a place and let’s get out of here.”

“Fine. The pet store. I don’t like it, but I can’t think of anyplace better.”

As they raced south on Third, Goodwin said, “Gabriel, dear boy. Before we were interrupted, you said the mating bond between Noah and your sister is visible?”

“Barely. It’s like a transparent string stretched between them, and even that was fading. But I think it kept their universes connected up until now.”

Pan said, “So if the bond is visible, why didn’t Ryder use it for an instant conviction?”

“I only saw it because I was looking for it,” Gabriel said as they turned east on Maple. “And because I know what a mating bond feels like.”

“Can you use it somehow?” Emma asked. “Trace it to Sophia’s portal?”

“I could have, when it was stronger. If I’d known what I was looking at earlier, I could have followed it right to where that asshat is keeping my sister.” His grim expression said he blamed himself. “But not now.”

“You didn’t know,” she said softly. “Gabriel, you did your best.”

“I
should
have known.” He looked down at her, and his expression softened. “But thanks for that.”

A little over two blocks later Gabriel opened the door of the Matinsfield Happy Tails pet store, recently merged with Jayden’s Do Doggie ’Do chain of in-store pet grooming boutiques.

As Emma entered, Jayden was pacing. He stopped, spun to her, and exclaimed, “
Finally.
Took you long enough to get here.”

The group filtered in behind her. Gabriel asked pointedly, “How did you know we were coming?”

“Please. That boom? They heard it on Neptune. You’ve come to use my booth.”

“Yeah,” Pan said. “How good is it for privacy?”

“I grounded a snoop filter on all eight corners.” Jayden jerked a thumb behind him.

Gabriel scowled. “That’s a lot of power to expend for a regular witch.”

“For a regular witch,” Jayden agreed, not answering anything. “You can do third-eye viewings and minor talisman activations without the Enforcer getting wind of it. Although I wouldn’t attempt any power spells.” He shooed the four of them toward a small glassed-in area to her left, about the size of a vet’s examination room. “Good luck.”

Emma, who did not manipulate easily, found herself propelled toward the booth as if her feet weren’t her own. Pan and Goodwin trotted behind her, and when she glanced over her shoulder at them, their expressions were as surprised.

“Wait.” Gabriel anchored himself with what was, from the set of his jaw, pure stubbornness. “What will you be doing?”

“What do you think? Keeping an eye out for the Enforcer.”

“Why? He doesn’t know we’ve come here.”

The pet groomer managed to give Gabriel a look that was haughty, sarcastic, long-suffering, and impatient all at once. “Rub your two brain cells together and spark a
clue,
prince. The prophecy is active—when that happens, normalcy goes out the window and coincidence becomes the norm. The Enforcer may show up here because you have the first pieces of the key—or he may show up just because.”

“Lovely,” Gabriel growled. “Another reason to hate prophecies.”

“Hey, it’s not all downsides. You get to play the hero. ‘Mind is focused by Light’, you know.”

“Simply because my name happens to be Light doesn’t mean I’m the one—”

“Oh don’t be such a dweeb. Of course you are.” The pet groomer chivvied them toward the booth. “Who else is there?”

That aggrieved tone of voice grated on even Emma’s nerves. Finding herself inside a booth smelling of burnt hair and clean dog, she clutched the journal to her chest as if it were her protection, the wolf pendant completely hidden. “How do you know we have the first piece of the key?”

Jayden raised a black brow at her. “I have a bit of an affinity for them. And I said
pieces,
plural. You kids have fun!” He shoveled the rest of her party into the grooming booth and shut the door with a decided click.

Closed inside the booth with a large table, three big males, and her, she was definitely cramped.