Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2) (28 page)

“Absolutely not.”

“Then you’ll need to be careful.”

Careful, though his flesh and very blood itched for action. Gabriel only said, “I’ll be as careful as I can. Change of plans. You distract the Enforcer. I’ll sneak past him and up to the room.”

“The block-door talisman only works to keep folks in, not out,” Pan warned.

“I’ll have to try to barricade myself inside. Improvise.”
Like the old days.
His mind felt alert, ready. His whole body felt alive. He was excited.

His sister’s life was at stake, and he was excited? Shame swamped him. He pinched the bridge of his nose, lifting his glasses.

It was Emma who said, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

Pan glided off.

Gabriel released his nose. “Emma, you’d better stay here.”

Her small hand wormed its way into his. “No.”

He stared down at her in fond exasperation. “What happened to ‘I’m fine’?”

“You, going alone into the Enforcer’s den? I am
not
fine.” She glared up at him, her emerald eyes glowing.

He chuffed a laugh, half-consternation, half-delight. She was a lifetime’s full of keeping him on his toes. He brightened at the prospect.

Then he dimmed. She still hadn’t said how she felt, knowing he was responsible for his parents’ death. She was with him now and thank goodness, but afterward, freed from the mating bond…she might walk away.

His whole body chilled.

No. She was with him now. If he kept her by his side with this, and then found another excuse, and another, and another…if he kept her with him via a string of excuses for the rest of his life, he might eventually be able to wear her objections down.

To make her his. His to love. His to keep safe. Well, there was her berserker talent, but he didn’t want to rely on that.

Best for her to stay here. He’d begin his excuses after.

He opened his mouth to frame his refusal and drew breath.

“Nope,” she said.

“But I haven’t said—”

“Crispy-creme nope. Fried nope with syrup. Coffee and burnt nope. Every way I can think of to say no, not, never leaving me behind.”

His spirits rose again, higher than before. That was his brave, brilliant Emma. He shook his head fondly. “All right.”

“Nope with bacon bits. Poached nope on toast…wait, what?”

“You’re probably safer with me anyway. Come on.”

That, to his amusement, left her speechless. He tugged her into motion to the corner of the B-and-B, where Pan waited. When they got to Pine, he signaled his familiar inside.

After a few moments she whispered, “How will you know when he’s distracted the Enforcer—?”

“I am
not
interested in Dance Dance Revolution!” Ryder’s high-pitched squeal interrupted her.

She gave him a rueful grin. “Oh.”

If he’d been the old Gabriel, the adrenaline pumping through his system would be exhilarating. In the old days before he’d toned down his flamboyancy, this would even have been fun. Even now he’d felt the echo of it.

But with Emma beside him, the danger was starkly real. He could not afford to get caught.

Heart pumping, hand tightly clasping hers, he crept inside.

Aunt Linda and Mr. Kibbles were nowhere to be seen, as Pan had said. But Ryder stood, profile to them, beside the piano, staring with disgust at Pan who sat on the bench pounding out “Heart and Soul”.

“Come on, Ryder. Play with me!” Pan glanced up and saw them—and immediately his gold eyes went wide. Ryder would see them if his attention wavered from the keyboard.

“No fucking way. What is wrong with you—?”

“Tango!” Pan leaped to his feet, bench crashing back, to grab the Enforcer and spin him into a dance hold, an imaginary rose gritted between his teeth. “And-a one-two-three-four-and—”

“Let me go.” Ryder tried to pull away, nearly tearing free to spin toward where Gabriel and Emma crouched.

“Close embrace!” Pan snugged him up tight, yanking so hard Gabriel heard the whump of their chests meeting and winced.

“You’re
insane.
” The Enforcer’s bleat was nearly soprano.

“I’m insane—for da-ance,” Pan sang. “
Boleo!
” He swept the Enforcer into a diagonal, away from where Gabriel waited with a pounding heart, the familiar changing direction so fast Ryder’s trailing leg kicked up into the air.

Gabriel tugged on Emma’s hand and pulled her into motion.

They crept across the floor.

Just as the Enforcer tore away from Pan’s grip.

Gabriel sucked in his breath. They were in plain sight. Ryder was certain to see them.

“And spin. And dip!” Pan grabbed Ryder’s hand and yanked him into a twirl, ending by shoving the Enforcer backward over one arm.

“Fuck!” Falling, Ryder arched over Pan’s arm like a ballerina. “You’re totally psycho.”

Gabriel and Emma sneaked behind the blustering Enforcer to the staircase. Every nerve tight as a Bugatti’s timing, he tiptoed up, Emma padding silently behind him, wolf-style.

“
Enough.
”

From behind him, Gabriel felt the surge of magic, a repel spell. He glanced down in time to see Ryder push Pan away, into the fireplace. Again the Enforcer started to turn almost intuitively toward them.

“And foot play,” Pan yelled, shoving off the mantelpiece to grab Ryder and run a tickling foot up Ryder’s leg, throwing a furious hurry-the-hell-up glance at Gabriel as he did and losing track of his foot play, rising too fast, too high, and a lot too hard, ending with toes in testicles.

Ryder, with a sick woof, clasped his crotch and fell to his knees.

Pan glared a
shoo.

Gabriel didn’t need the suggestion. He pulled Emma to the top of the landing and out of the Enforcer’s sight.

The bedroom with Sophia’s jail was second on the right. Gabriel sneaked down the hall, third eye wide, to open the door onto a room in keeping with the style of the parlor, big high bed with thick colorful comforter, heavy pieces of wood furniture lacquered to a high gloss and a smattering of plaster busts and figurines in romantically suggestive poses.

At least, they were suggestive to him. He nearly lost his concentration, realized at the last moment he’d seen the glint of a magical tripwire, and froze. Emma plowed into his back.

Pushed forward, he shot a quick “release” at the wire with a whisper of power. He landed shoulders tense, listening hard.

“Let me go, you insane panther!”

Grabbing Emma’s hand, he pulled her into the room. As Emma shut and locked the door, his attention was snagged by a pair of nudes entwined in what he recognized as a copy of Rodin’s “The Kiss”. The man’s hand on the woman’s naked flank, her legs over his, her arm behind his neck as he bent his head to hers…oh yeah, it gave him all kinds of ideas.

Focus on the job at hand.
He shook off any thoughts of sweetly curved naked flanks and scanned the room for more tricks and traps. A few ambush spells sparkled on a suitcase and the dresser, but the middle of the room was clear. “All right. Once I activate the partial key, we have a few seconds before the Enforcer charges up here and tries to jail us.”

“How many of those jail things does he carry, anyway? Can we count them like bullets?”

He paused in the midst of all his worry and adrenaline to simply smile at her, his emerald-eyed ray of sunshine. “I love how you’re always thinking. We can’t be sure how many jail talismans he has, so we have to prepare for the worst—one more than we think. It won’t take him long to get past the physical lock and get inside. When he does, I’ll counter whatever he throws while you yell for Sophia.”

“Earning you more go-to-jail, do-not-pass-go points? I don’t think so. Sophia will recognize your voice, not mine. You yell, I’ll wallop the Enforcer. It doesn’t take magic to fight.”

She’d seen with ease through his attempt to shield her. Stars above, she was a marvel. “I don’t want him pinning more detention points on you either.”

“No worries. Since the Enforcer doesn’t fight fair, I don’t have to either. I’ll stand behind the door to hit him. He won’t even see me. Here.” With only a slight hesitation, she offered him her journal. He’d given it back to her in case she changed her mind.

She hadn’t.

He ran through the probabilities quickly, decided that her suggestion not only protected her best, it had the best chance for a positive outcome. “Have I said lately how perfect you are?”

“Not perfect.” Her cheeks pinked. His gaze riveted to the rosy flesh, momentarily wondering if her lips below would turn that exact shade as he kissed them.

Awkwardly, she said, “But thanks.” She picked up a nearby plaster bust and glided behind the door.

He clenched his eyes, willing his engorged cock down and having a helluva hard time doing it.

Free Sophia first. Then figure out a way to make love to Emma through the next Ice Age.

He reached for every drop of his limited power, visualizing it in the way he’d been taught, as the air in his lungs, the water in his cells, the crust of earth beneath his feet, and the fire of the planet’s molten core. His power usually came to him as a mighty ocean, but he wasn’t surprised when all he felt was a gentle lapping at the shoreline of his self. The limiter’s doing.

It was enough for the nudge he planned.

With the ease of long practice, he kept his physical eyelids cracked while opening his third eye. First thing he saw was the thin thread of Sophia’s mate connection with Noah.

Bad, bad, bad. The once-transparent line was frosted slightly, like corneal clouding. Gabriel’s own breath iced. Even without Ryder’s murderous plans, time was running out.

As a wizard prince, Gabriel had access to multiple elements, and he’d already decided a doorway would respond best to earth magic. Drawing deep, he pulled up power from the earth through his feet, through his body, into his hands, the journal sandwiched between them.

Focused on the end of Sophia’s mating lifeline on the etheric, he aimed his whisper of power at the journal.

The wolf medallion began to glow a soft gold, and the book itself warmed.

But that was all.

He pulled on a little more power and commanded, “Open.”

And…nothing.

“What’s happening?” Emma whispered.

“I don’t know. I pulsed, but it didn’t work. Get ready for company.”

Sure enough, pounding feet came running, Ryder’s heavy tread followed by Pan’s lighter surefooted pad.

The doorknob clacked, turning behind them, but the locked door stayed shut. “What’s going on in there?” Ryder yelled.

“Hey, Enforcer,” Pan said. “Ever polka?”

“Get away from me!”

“A-one-two-hop! One-two—”

“
Enough.
” A loud pop was followed by the whump of a body hitting the carpeted hallway.

Fuck.
Gabriel had to work hard to shove away the cold snarl of fear for his familiar.
Finish this now.

The slap of a talisman against the door and surge of power on the etheric made Gabriel shove everything the limiter allowed through the partial key.

“
Open.
”

Nothing.

Fear chomped his middle with icicles for teeth.

He abandoned subtlety and drew his wand, pointing it at the leather-bound book. Pulling every particle of power he could find in any element, air, water, fire, earth, he drilled magic into the key. “Damn it, I said
open!
”

Bang.
But not on the etheric. A physical explosion splintered the door out of its frame.

Ryder stood in the doorway, wand pointed at the now-disintegrated door, eyes wide on Gabriel.

“What the fuck?
Light?
” The Enforcer’s wand came up, aimed directly at Gabriel. As Gabriel strained to ignite the partial key with every bit of magic he could channel, Ryder screamed, “Power
off.
”

Chapter Twenty-Five

The ankle limiter cut in like a circuit breaker. The abrupt interruption of Gabriel’s power draw was the psychic equivalent of being on the wrong end of a breaking industrial rubber band. His third eye flared with fire, pain lashing into his brain and cutting his insides like machetes.

Standing in the doorway, eyes bulging, Ryder’s thin chest heaved like a bellows under his black leather jacket. “I didn’t believe it but… How the hell are you out of jail?”

“Fuck that,” the cricket chirped. “Where’s your traitorous she-bitch? Where’s Singer?”

Reeling with pain, Gabriel was horrified the key hadn’t worked. He was terrified his sister’s mating bond looked so near death.

But he was nearly cut off at the knees thinking Ryder might detect Emma, who was hugging the wall beside him.

Training saved Gabriel. Clamping automatically down on his pain and shock, he diverted every ounce of control to think.

Okay, snare the Enforcer’s attention. Keep it solely on him. Off of Emma, plaster bust raised to crash over Ryder’s head the moment he stepped into the room.

“Ryder Shootingstar.” Blocking pain, calling up his old flamboyance, Gabriel managed a credible cocky grin. “You thought your piddling magic could keep me corralled? As big a lie as your naming Emma as traitor.”

The cricket familiar behind Ryder chirped, “He didn’t lie. He got creative with the truth.”

The anklet’s cutoff began to ease. Gabriel’s power started wicking back, but he didn’t relax. Emma’s arms trembled, waiting. Her nostrils were white, keeping her panting breaths quiet. “
Pfft.
I knew all along Edge was the Singer who betrayed Noah and Sophia.”

Ryder bridled visibly. “First, outing your wolf-whore sister was the act of a patriot, not a traitor. Second—” he shot his wand beside him, directly at Emma, “—
drop.”

The bust leaped from her hands, hit the hardwood floor, and shattered.

The pale shock in her face made Gabriel want to enfold her in his arms and comfort her.

But she held it together, glaring at the Enforcer, emerald eyes glittering. “That third plate. My mother was expecting
you
this morning, wasn’t she? And this afternoon you showed up at the pet shop with her.”

“Not with her. I don’t know why she was at the pet store. I was there because I’d heard a magical boom and managed to peel off that leech Linda Blue long enough to investigate. But early this morning, yes, your mother’s home was a convenient, private place to meet Edge. Your brother has been very useful as a criminal informant.” Ryder’s smile was gloating.

“You turned him on his own pack.” She pointed an accusing finger.

“Oh please,” the cricket chirped. “Like his pack ever did anything for him.”

“He volunteered,” Ryder said. “Gave up Sophia in return for release from prison and a few magical gewgaws. And in exchange, I got to put Light’s sister on the chopping block—which I knew would get Light here, where I could torture him. But, Emma Singer,
you!
You have done far more than your brother to destroy Gabriel Light.”

She winced.

“Your doing the nasty with him means I have enough to nail him for eternity.” He laughed then, a true villain’s cackle to Gabriel’s ears.

Her face drained of all color. “I almost wish my brother had managed to sell me back to Bruiser.”

The Enforcer’s cackle cut off. “He what?”

“Ryder, enough.” Gabriel circled around, intent on moving between the witch and Emma. “Leave Emma and my sister out of this. It’s me you want.”

“Exactly. It’s you I want—suffering. You, helpless in jail, knowing your sister is rotting in another, is the sweetest revenge. But if you’ve figured out a way to escape jail, well, I’ll simply have to kill you. A pity you won’t suffer for as long—but you will suffer more intensely to make up for it. Because before you die…” He brought out a jail talisman and pointed it at Emma. “I’m going to kill everyone you’ve ever loved.”

Gabriel leaped between them, readying every bit of magic the limiter allowed to shield her.

But Ryder only smirked and swiveled his arm to aim the talisman mid-room. “You thought I’d start with your sex toy? Hardly. I’m killing your sister first. Your parents are dead, Light, thanks to me—and your sister soon will be too.”

Gabriel sucked in a breath filled with ice.
What fuels such hatred?
Had he really been so horrible to Ryder when they were boys? “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you
deserve
it. You ruined my life. The whole damned Light clan ruined my whole family!”

“One little magic fair doesn’t wreck a whole family—”

“That soul-sucking fair was only a single steaming pile in the shit-storm you Lights heaped on us. I was Council-bound, destined by birth to regain the glory of the Shootingstars.”

From the hallway came a feeble, “Who writes your dialog, dude?”

Gabriel’s shoulders eased somewhat. If Pan was snarking, he’d be okay.

Himself, on the other hand… “You want onto the Witches’ Council, right. What’s stopping you?”

Ryder’s body trembled, rage evident in every line of his body, his face. “You utter ass. These days it’s not just having the right family. You have to go to the right college and that means the right high school—and that depends on everything back to day-fucking-care. And there you were, head potion boy and best in wand-making and the shining example held up by my teachers every day of the prison that became my ‘oops, where’s the soap’ life.”

The cricket squeaked, “And that’s before he actually met you in middle school.”

Forget shielding. Gabriel readied himself to do whatever it took to get Emma out of this alive.

“I can see the day we met like a movie,” the other witch snarled. “Me, a little sixth-grader among all the big hairy eighth-graders. I came out of the lunch line with my tray to find a table. And there you were, holding court with the cheerleaders and jocks and eggheads. And I knew I wanted to be part of that, that despite everything my family taught me, we were equals and could be friends.” He almost shouted it. “I started over—and a bully knocked my tray out of my hands.”

“Me?”

He gaped. “You utter conceited, self-absorbed prick. No, another kid, but you pointed your wand at my tray and swoosh, everything was all right again, the perfect hero—and
everyone laughed,
delighted the big hero had rescued the poor little dumbass kid. My humiliation was simply a chance for you to shine.”

Sick, horrified, Gabriel stopped sucking what power he could from the surroundings.

“Then, the night of magic fair, I came over to you. Demeaned myself to let bygones be bygones. I held out my hand and offered a blood bond. Me, a blue-blooded Shootingstar, offering a blood bond to an upstart Light. Instead of slashing your palm or even bothering to prick your finger, you just shook my fucking hand.”

“I don’t remember that,” Gabriel whispered.

“Do you remember the eighth grade float, before that? One of your buddies was dating a sixth grade girl and she invited me to help work on it. I finally got to join your clique, the big group of mighty cheerleaders and jocks and potion freaks. We had to work extra to get that float done, do you remember? I even skipped class. I wouldn’t have, but you said you’d take care of it. But you didn’t—and I got an F.”

Gabriel flinched. He did remember the float incident. He’d arranged with another boy to speak with the teachers, but hadn’t followed up until too late. He did talk personally with Ryder’s teacher later and got the F reversed, and had apologized to Ryder then, but he saw now the incident had a greater impact on the young witch than he’d ever dreamed.

His fault.
“You damned show-off”
rang in his skull. His grandmother was righter than she knew. His whole body flooded with shame.

“You stole every show—I can’t count the number of times I was benched because of your star quarterbacking. You ask why I’m destroying you?
Because you destroyed me first.
You took every prize, killed my hopes, my dreams. My life
as it should have been.
”

With those words, Ryder stripped Gabriel to the boy he’d been.

Confident, well-intentioned—and wrong.

He wished he could melt into the floor. His legs did wobble as his insides crumpled.

His grandmother was right. His own hubris had caused this. He deserved whatever the Enforcer meted out.

The cricket rubbed its legs almost gleefully.

“No.” Emma’s light touch told him she was reading him flawlessly, as she always did. She had moved to stand beside him. “He’s wrong.
You
didn’t cause his feelings. Think about it. You weren’t close enough to him to injure him, to wound him, so deeply. Whatever you did, you only triggered feelings already there.”

Gabriel wanted to believe her, but it was hard, his whole body trembly and cold.

“Did you kill
his
parents?” She searched his face. “Murder anyone in his family, or anyone at all? Think, Gabriel.”

Think.
“N-no.”

“Then why would you deserve to die? If you could make it all better for him, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. But he’s hurting so much—”

“Gabriel, even if you held a gun to his head and
shouted
‘Feel better’…it wouldn’t make a difference. Nothing you can do can make him feel better, because
you’re not the cause.
”

Think.

At first her words meant nothing beyond sounds, mushy and echoing through his misery. And then…
If I could make him feel better, wouldn’t I?
Of course he would. He’d atone for his mistakes, if Ryder would let him. As he had for another boy who’d helped with the float and gotten an F…a boy who, after Gabriel squared it with the teacher, had
forgiven
him. In fact, they’d gone on to be good friends.

Emma was right—he couldn’t make Ryder love, and he couldn’t make Ryder hate.

Gabriel had made mistakes, but this went beyond a flamboyant young man’s unwitting slights to a sensitive boy or even derailing the boy’s plans for glory.

Yes, he’d pushed buttons on Ryder’s emotional land mines. But he hadn’t built the land mines.

Ryder had.

Carefully he said, “Ryder. I’m sorry for whatever I did that you hate me so much. But my parents didn’t deserve to die, and neither does Sophia. Let her go.”

“No fucking way. The world is better off without her. Better off without
all
Lights. I murdered your parents, and now I’m going to finish the job.”

“
Murdered
them?” Shock filled Gabriel’s lungs. “You caused their deaths, but the Council ruled it an accident.” Even in his worst dreams, Ryder’d only been guilty of malicious magic-flinging—not actual premeditated murder.

Ryder threw back his head and laughed. “That magical ‘misfire’ on the plane was no accident. I planned it to the last detail. They died because I wanted them to. Because, despite you, I have friends in high places. Oh no, be assured the little tech-magic misfire was ever so intentional. I meant to kill them, and I did.” Switching the jail talisman to his other hand, he plucked his wand showily out of the air. “Now I’ll kill you too—and your bitch—while I go take care of your sister.
Council business. Seal room.
”

He swept the wand in a double spiral. A force field sprang up, buzzing angrily against the walls and doorway.

Then he pointed at an innocent-looking suitcase near the bed. “Meet the instrument of your fate.”

Emma took a small sniff. When her face went white, every hair on Gabriel’s body rose.

“What the hell is that?”

Ryder’s eyes glittered. “Enough explosive to fry both of you to atoms.”

Gabriel’s fingers clenched. “The Council will have your head for this.”

“No, actually, they’ll have
your
head. Well, if they can find it. I’ll tell them you triggered it, throwing spells and trying to evade an Enforcer’s lawful arrest. Magic doesn’t mix with tech, after all.” He activated the small disk of Sophia’s jail talisman like he was punching a car unlock. A portal irised open midroom.

While Gabriel glared at the suitcase, brain working furiously fast, Ryder stepped through the portal, his cricket hopping in after him.

“When I return I’ll vaporize any trace of your sister’s doorway and pretend the explosion did it. Oh, as a good Enforcer, I’ll try my best to find her but sadly will fail. Unfortunately you won’t be around to tell the Council the truth. How does it feel, Light, knowing
you’ll be blamed for killing your family?
”

Gabriel saw red. He’d beaten himself down, practically erased himself, for
this?

He channeled his rage immediately into readiness. “I would have taken it,” he said, voice very, very controlled. “For myself, I would have accepted whatever punishment you had for me. But instead you imprisoned my sister. Hurt her, her mate, their unborn children.”