Witchlock (5 page)

She pushed the topic away from her near death. “How did you make it back into town before tomorrow morning?”
 

“I had everyone on the troll killer team push around the clock for the last two days so I could get back early.”
 

That’s why he looked so tired. She had to leave all the heavy talking until tomorrow and just get him home. “Did you get the killer?”
 

“Yes, but he was dead when we found him. I’ll tell you about that later. I left the group so I could return faster on my own.”
 

She thought on that. “Did you shift and return as a jaguar?”
 

He nodded.
 

“Why? They had vehicles.”
 

“They also stop all the time to eat and for every other reason. Worst road trip ever. Tzader told me where you were supposed to be, but you
weren’t
with Adrianna when I got here.”
 

She caught the undertone to expect more conversation later and held
her tongue so he could get it all out. Storm was the most patient man on the face of the earth when it came to her, unless he thought she was in danger.
 

She’d been living in a dangerous world her whole life.
 

That was not going to change anytime soon.
 

Storm said, “Adrianna pointed out the skyride and told me you’d gone after something you thought was a demon. I took off and reached the skyride platform just as your cable car was too far out for me to leap and catch. I ran to find the trail up the back side of the mountain while you took the scenic route.”
 

She knew how preternaturally fast he was, but that surprised even her. “Where’d you find a rope on the way here?”
 

“When I saw you hanging off the damn mountain, I raced back to the skyride building and used majik to open the storage area that had rescue equipment.”  He studied her. “What were you doing hanging from a cable car when you hate heights?”
 

When had he figured out she was freaked by heights? She growled. “I didn’t do it intentionally. I can now take dangling from a cable car and clinging to the side of a mountain off my bucket list.”
 

She totally missed with lightening the mood.
 

The fierce look in Storm’s eyes went up another level.
 

She put her hand on his crossed arms and said, “I would have hung there until someone came along. I was not going to let go and lose you.”
 

His eyes softened and he swallowed hard. “I’m glad you didn’t let go.”
 

“Never.”
 

He looked as if he wasn’t convinced and started to say something, but didn’t get the chance.
 

Power flashed around them in a burst, and a rogue wind slapped their clothes.
 

Chapter 4
 

That whip of power could only mean that someone had sent Sen to deal with the mess on top of Stone Mountain.
 

Evalle reminded herself that killing the VIPER liaison would only delay her going home.
 

She took one look into Storm’s eyes, which had immediately darkened. He knew who had arrived, too, and she’d have her hands full keeping peace between these two. She took a breath and prepared to face Sen as she turned around.
 

Storm stepped up beside her, but at least he didn’t try to step in front of her.
 

Sen’s body materialized near the platform thirty feet away and on the inside of the fenced area. He stood in black jeans, boots and a black short-sleeved T-shirt, oblivious to the cold seeping into Evalle’s body. His hair, often a different length within a twenty-four hour period, now fell loose around his shoulders. Today he stood almost six-six, and would tower over most of the agents. She’d seen him shorter, so he’d probably chosen uber-tall today just for her, so he could lord his position as if she and Storm were cockroaches avoiding his boot heel.
 

Sen cast a glance around then said, “Tzader called me from a Tribunal meeting. This better be important.”
 

So either Tzader had heard her signal for help after all, or Adrianna had made the call.
 

“I caught a
Réisc Dubh
demon stalking humans around Memorial Hall,” Evalle replied, giving Sen as simple a statement as she could to limit what he’d criticize.
 

“
If
that’s true, what’re you doing up here?”
 

She clamped down on her irritation at his immediate suspicion with anything that involved her. “The demon walked around with a glamour then jumped into the cable car. When I tried to contain him, he attacked me and somehow got the cable car moving. We fought all the way up here.”
 

Sen stood with his arms crossed. “
A Réisc Dubh
and even
you
couldn’t stop him?”
 

Sen made her sound like a bumbling fool, but
this Réisc Dubh had not been what she’d expect from that kind of demon.
“He was glamoured to the point that I couldn’t tell his race at first, but once I realized what he was, he showed his form, and was tougher to take down than he should’ve been. He had more power than any demon I’ve faced before. He ripped up
my shoulder before I finally killed him by stabbing him with my dagger.”
 

“Who else saw him besides you, Alterant?”
 

Storm stiffened at Sen using the word Alterant as if it were a slur. When Storm moved forward a fraction, Evalle squeezed his arm in a silent plea not to engage. Sen had shown his god-like powers more than once and Evalle didn’t want him flexing his muscles. With a tiny finger flip, he’d smashed Storm, in jaguar form, up against a brick wall.
 

Evalle had thought Storm died, and he almost had.
 

Storm had assured her Sen would never get a second chance to kill him, but keeping these two apart would be better for everyone involved.
 

Storm let out a breath that sounded threatening, but he eased back off the balls of his feet. His body was still rigid with the urge to act, but he kept his temper restrained.
 

Sen chuckled.
 

Tension swept from Storm.
 

You are such a jerk, Sen.
She’d have to deal with having asked Storm to back down in front of Sen later, once she and Storm were alone.
 

Sen repeated his question. “Who else saw the demon?”
 

“Just me. Why?” Evalle confirmed.
 

“The Tribunal doesn’t want Beladors retaliating against the Medb by conjuring up bogus demon issues.”
 

“What?” Evalle shouted at Sen. “Are you serious? Beladors have been working around the clock to clean up the–”  She paused before saying they’d been cleaning up the mess left by the Medb, because that was not going to help the Belador case with a Tribunal that needed an attitude adjustment. “Problems left from last month,” she finished.
 

A sound rumbled from deep in Storm’s throat that reminded her of a predator on the hunt, waiting to attack its prey. Anyone with sense would realize that might be the only warning before Storm’s control snapped like a paper leash.
 

“So you can prove this isn’t some trumped-up issue?” Sen asked.
 

“Take a look at the body.”  
Dickhead,
she finished silently. “The guy was strange, even for a
Réisc Dubh
. One minute he was entirely human then the next his head and shoulders lost their glamour. His head expanded until his jaws were a foot wide and showed off a double row of teeth. He’d act demented sometimes, then out of the blue, he’d make lightning bolts fly around that interfered with my kinetics.”
 

“He made lightning bolts fly around
and
made a cable car ride up here on its own?” Sen scoffed, then directed his next question at Storm. “That wasn’t a
Réisc Dubh
. What kind of demon has that type of power?”
 

Storm smiled, but there was nothing nice about it. “You’d be surprised at what some demons are capable of given the right motivation.”
 

Any minute all this testosterone poisoning would combust into a blood bath with one wrong move.
 

Just over a week ago, Storm had to be dragged back from the edge of turning demon forever. He carried that tainted blood as a gift from his Ashaninka witch doctor mother, but the Navajo half he’d inherited from his shaman father kept him from the dark side.
 

At the moment, he looked like he was ready to embrace his dark genes.
 

Evalle cut through the tension by pulling everyone back to the problem at hand. “I have no idea if he was entirely
Réisc Dubh, but he had black ears
. The bottom half of his body didn’t change into anything. Take his corpse to the druids at headquarters and see what they think.”
 

That broke the silent battle raging between the two men.
 

Sen leaped up ten feet to the platform.
 

Evalle used her kinetics and catapulted herself over the fence, then up onto the platform, too.
 

Storm landed silently next to her.
 

Nice to have jaguar agility.
 

Sen walked over to the cable car and stuck his head in for a moment then backed out. “Where is he?”
 

Storm frowned and glanced at Evalle then they both walked over to the car, where no body was inside. The chair leg she’d clung to was still bent, but the rest of the damage had vanished and there was no blood. Even her jacket was gone.
 

She shook her head and pointed. “He was right there.”
 

“You fought him?” Sen asked.
 

“Yes.”
 

“He tore up your shoulder?”
 

“
Yesss!”
she said, losing patience with Sen’s snippy tone.
 

“Where’s the blood?”
 

“You see it on her shirt,” Storm said, his voice loaded with disgust.
 

“That could have been staged.”
 

“You son of a bitch,” Storm said, taking a step forward.
 

Sen said, “Do it. Give me a reason to ask the Tribunal to lock you beneath headquarters.”
 

Where Storm would stay forever.
 

Evalle whispered, “Please don’t.” She put her hand on Storm’s arm again and felt his muscles quivering with fury.
 

Sen mimicked in a bad imitation of Evalle, “Oh, please don’t Storm, or
you’ll get your ass kicked.”
 

Storm turned to stone, not looking her way, but he moved his arm out of her grasp.
 

Now she’d pissed Storm off by giving Sen ammo to humiliate him.
 

One day, Sen would go down in flames and if she controlled all the water in the world she wouldn’t allow it to dribble on him. “I didn’t make up any of this, Sen. The Beladors are not faking demon attacks. No one can lie to a Tribunal. All they have to do is ask Tzader.”  
 

Not that she wanted to send Tzader to face a Tribunal with all the personal troubles he had right now, but the mix of three deities that made up a Tribunal wouldn’t intimidate Tzader one bit. He’d set everyone straight.
 

“It’s coming to that very soon,” Sen warned. “The Tribunal has to keep changing out gods and goddesses just to accommodate these problems. Neither Macha nor Maeve can be in a Tribunal due to conflict of interest, so the other gods and goddesses are not happy about all the new Belador and Medb conflict.”
 

Bloodshed and loss of lives for centuries deserved a better word than conflict.
 

Sen pointed out, “This is my only warning. I had better not be called back to deal with another alleged demon sighting by an Alterant any time soon.”
 

She said, “If you don’t want us hunting demons, or any other creatures, then why don’t you have your Medb buddies deal with them? As for the Tribunal, if they’d end the tug-of-war over the gryphons, all this conflict might die down.”
 

Macha had claimed ownership of the Alterants-turned-gryphons first, but Maeve awoke from a two-thousand-year nap and decided she had equal claim since they carried Medb blood. That witch could posture all she wanted.
 

Evalle would not join the Medb and would fight any challenge Queen Maeve brought.
 

Whiny Tribunal deities.
 

Yes, this was the first time in many years that the deities had been called upon so much, but if they didn’t like being imposed upon, they should fix it.
 

Then again, Evalle had suffered their attempts at fixing things in the past, which hadn’t been fun, especially the way they twisted words to suit their purposes. She kept her mouth shut.
 

“I’ll be sure to pass along your advice to the current Tribunal,” Sen
said, way too smug.
 

Adrenaline from moments ago drained from her body, leaving exhaustion in its wake. She wanted to go home.  “I’m done. Just so you know, when you get this area back in shape, the demon-you-don’t-believe-exists left a security guy comatose at the lower platform. That’s all yours.”
 

She walked off before Sen could cause any more problems for her. Storm fell into stride next to her, just as silent as he’d been for the last few minutes.