by Gwen Rivers
“When?” I could hear Liam’s growl through the closed bedroom door. Ignoring the sexy little dress, I shimmied into the new underwear, jeans and a tank top. My hair was still wet so I twisted it into a bun and secured it to the top of my head. After a moment’s consideration, I folded up the drawing I’d done the night before and put it in my pocket.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Liam’s back was to me, but he turned to face me at the creak from my bedroom door.
“Something wrong?” I asked when he hung up the phone.
He slid it into his back pocket and then reached into his front one and extracted a red shard of….something.
“What is that?”
“The stone of destiny.”
“It sounds important,” I was mesmerized by the way the light reflected against the liquid red heart of the jewel.
“It’s one of the four strongest magical talismans in creation.”
My jaw dropped. “And you’re giving it to me?”
Liam’s lips twitched upwards. “This isn’t the whole stone. Just a shard of it. The whole stone sits on a hill in Ireland. Only in the PR or Underhill does it glow with an inner light. All my wolves have one. It’s what allows us to transition between the PR and Manhattan. May I?” Liam asked, extending the necklace.
When I nodded, he indicated that I should turn around. I did so, presenting him with my back. The necklace fell to between my breasts. Liam’s hands lingered a moment and then he stepped away. I could feel his hot, hungry gaze fixate on the spot.
A finger stroked along the side of my face. “For the record, I would give you the entire damn stone if I thought it would make you smile like that again.”
Startled, I looked up to meet his gaze. “What is your game, werewolf?”
“No game.” His multihued eyes were hungry.
“I can’t tell when you’re kidding.”
“I don’t.” He said simply. “With you, I always mean what I say.”
I decided to take him at his word. “So, you need to leave?”
“No, we need to leave.”
My lips parted in understanding. “There’s been another attack?”
“On one of my wolves.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “I don’t want to take you out there.”
“Liam, this is what I was born to do.”
He turned from me. “What if you have another destiny?”
“Like what?”
“Emma, I need to tell you something.”
I didn’t like his set up, knew I wasn’t going to like hearing whatever it was he had to tell me.
A horn honked from outside.
Liam exhaled. “It will have to wait. Our ride is here. Get your sword.”
“Um, won’t it look a little weird? Me toting a humongous ancient sword through downtown New York?”
“It’s midtown. I doubt anyone would bat an eye. But, in case they do….” He held out a belt and a sword sheathe. “This is glamoured to disappear from the mortal eye. As long as your sword rests within it, you’re good.”
I slithered back under my bed and extracted my talisman from the floor and then slid it into the sheath, trying not to let all the lewd jokes buzzing in my brain slip out through my mouth. Not that Liam wouldn’t appreciate them, but things between us were so...strained. I didn’t understand the current that ebbed and flowed from him to me and back. If I wasn’t careful, the undertow would drag me out to my doom.
Well, it could get in line.
I buckled on the sword belt. “Did it work?”
“See for yourself.”
I moved into the bathroom and sure enough, though I could feel the weight of the sword hanging by my side, it didn’t show up in the mirror.
Liam’s eyes met mine in the mirror. “Let’s go find some twisted ones.”
I thought for sure he’d call a car, the way he’d done when we came into the PR. So I was surprised to see a motorcycle parked at the curb in front of my house.
“How’d that get there?” I frowned.
“Bossman wanted to take his lady for a ride.” The bike spoke with a familiar Russian accent. “I told him he would have better luck with something organic between her thighs.”
“Go home, North,” Liam growled. “Watch out for Kiesha.”
“Go away, North, be quiet North. Da. One of these days, I’ll leave and never come back.”
“And on that day, I’ll dance a jig,” Liam waited until the sylph departed and then handed me the spare helmet.
“Why does he hang around?” I asked him. “It doesn’t seem like you two get along very well.”
“We don’t. I suspect my uncle Aiden has something to do with it. North was particularly attached to his mate, and would do anything she asked. Include spy on me for them.”
I let that sink in while Liam revved the engine, then gestured me forward. After slipping the helmet over my head, I climbed on the motorcycle behind him.
After a moment, I said, “This isn’t going to work. I keep getting poked with a big sword.”
Liam snorted. “It’s a good thing North left.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Adjust it into a shoulder harness.”
I stared at him. “How exactly would I go about doing that?”
“Magic, Emma. You’re the spellcaster.” He didn’t sound as impatient as I would have been in his size elevens.
I thought about my lessons with Magda, about the feel of the individual elements. The sheath and straps were made out of leather. I could do it.
Maybe.
Closing my eyes, I grunted and then extended a hand. Leather came from cows. Cows ate from the earth, drank from the streams and had the spark of life and breathed air. Fire, air, water and earth, all four elements.
I focused all my energy on the connection and took in a deep breath.
Nothing happened.
“I can’t—”
“You can.” Liam talked right over the top of me. “I know you can do this.”
“Because I’m the savior?” I didn’t mean for that to sound bitchy.
Even through his helmet, I could sense that he was staring directly at me.
“Right, the sarcasm isn’t helping. I’m just, drained, Liam.” It had been a beast of a week.
“I know.” His voice was quiet. “That’s why you need to do this. You’re going to have to learn to push beyond your comfort zone. To keep going when you think you’ve hit your outer limit. Believe in yourself, Emma. The magic is there and you can wield it.”
I let out a slow breath and then nodded. I kept my eyes open and chanted, “Shoulder harness, shoulder harness, shoulder harness.”
Slowly, the belt unwound from my waist. It crept up along my back and over my shoulders. The wind blew, but beneath my helmet I was sweating.
“Liam?” I asked.
“Did it work?”
“Sort of.” The sword was secured but the harness itself was more like a webwork of leather cobwebs than a steady harness. I had no doubt that getting out of the thing later would be hell.
“Will it do its job?”
I nodded and then he revved the bike, the smooth brat brat brat of the motorcycle’s engine breaking through the empty streets.
“Then we’re off.”
12
Liam had been back and forth through the barrier between Manhattan and the PR more times than he could recall. There was a feeling, not like touch but more of an awareness of energy when entering the realm, and a sense of loss when leaving it.
With Emma’s arms wrapped around him from behind however, he felt only delight. He loved riding, he loved it even more with his mate’s arms around his midsection. He was so proud of her for stretching herself and her magical limits. He’d witnessed what grueling paces Magda had put her through and yet she had wanted to come with him, to help.
He was worried about Andy. Gray said the wolf was badly hurt. But his thoughts were filled with his spellcaster and that moment he’d
almost kissed her.
And she’d wanted him to kiss her. He’d scented her desire—it had been a siren’s song that would have pulled him to his doom.
But he’d stopped. Because she didn’t know what a kiss between them might mean. Autumn and North had gotten inside his head.
He’d heard all the warnings about fated mates. That oftentimes they wouldn’t understand the connection. A true bond, like Gray shared with Spencer or his Uncle Aiden had with his mate were truly unique because they required two hearts to be both selfless and self-aware.
The odds weren’t in his favor.
Yet the wolf had urged him to trust her. He almost had. Later. He would tell her everything later.
He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice that anything was wrong until her grip slackened.
“Emma?”
No response came through his helmet.
He veered onto a dead and street and slowed to a stop. Emma tumbled off the bike and fell to her hands and knees.
Liam jerked his helmet off, put the kickstand down and moved to her side. “What is it?”
Emma shoved her helmet off hard. Her face was scrunched up tight and her entire body trembled. “Too much.”
“What’s too much?” Was she sick? He debated calling for a giant cab to take her back to the PR.
“Gen-pop. The feelings.” She groaned and then started to retch.
All at once he realized what had happened. His spellcaster was a human empath. She’d gone from the PR with no humans and their messy emotions to contend with to feeling everything New Yorker’s had to offer.
Emma spit and then wheezed, “Do you have any water?”
He ran for the storage compartment on the back of the bike and found two bottles of water. She was sitting up by the time he got back to her, her face still flushed, but her gray eyes were steady.
“Thanks.” She said and took a sip to rinse her mouth.
“Drink more,” he crouched down to assure himself she was on the mend.
She did and made a face. “I’m okay. That was stupid. I guess I’ve got used to being around supes. I didn’t even think to brace myself before we crossed.”
“You scared the hell out of me,” he ran a hand through his hair. “You almost fell off the bike.”
“I’m sorry—”
He cut her off with a kiss.
And thank all the gods, after her initial surprise, she kissed him back.
It wasn’t magic. It was so much better than magic because it was Emma. His Emma.
He pulled her into his lap, needing her closer. Wanting to consume her. His mate. His missing piece.
His Emma.
She pulled away, gasping for breath. “You are a very confusing guy, Liam.”
He stroked her face. “How’s that?”
“Just when I think I have you figured out you do something so unexpected.”
“I’ve been wanting to kiss you since that first night on the rooftop.”
“And you pick now? When I nearly puked in the street?” She just shook her head and scrambled to her feet. “We should get going.”
Tell her, his wolf insisted.
But she was right, now wasn’t the time. Soon though.
He waited for her to settle herself on the bike and merged back into traffic. After a few turns he noticed the tail. A black SUV. He didn’t say anything to Emma through the speakers in their helmets, but he felt her stiffen a moment after the vehicle made another turn that he did.
“Liam,”
“I know.”
He turned down a side street and nearly ran over a man carrying a bag of trash to the nearby dumpster. Behind them, tires screeched to a halt and angry horns blared out.
They shot out of the alley and Liam took an abrupt turn down another and then another before backing the motorcycle into a loading dock. He shut the engine off and a few seconds later, the SUV whizzed past their hiding spot. He counted to sixty and then started the engine back up and pulled out to tail the car.
“Won’t they see us?” Emma asked when she noticed his intent.
“Maybe, but it’s worth a shot. You don’t know any magical tracer spells or anything, do you?”
“No.” Her tone was full of regret.
They stopped at a light and he put one hand over hers. “It’s okay. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“I know,” she said. “It’s just, I was thinking about how useful something like that could be.”
Up ahead, they saw the vehicle take a left and head for the midtown tunnel. “Your call, Spellcaster. Do we try and follow them or do we head to Gray’s place?”
Emma was silent and then said, “Follow them.”
He turned for the tunnel and simultaneously dialed North.
“Did you forget something? Your balls perhaps?” His PA answered.
“Emma and I are following an unsub in an SUV. NY plate number 27U8Y65. We’re heading for the midtown tunnel. Alert the pack.”
Despite his many personality defects, North could be efficient when he wanted to be. “Da. Consider it done.”
Traffic picked up in the tunnel, more and more people getting out of work and heading for home. Rush hour traffic in New York couldn’t be avoided no matter what.
“Liam,” Emma’s arms tightened around him.
“What is it?” His gaze was locked on the SUV eight cars ahead.
“I’m not sure. Something’s wrong.”
His wolf went on alert.
Emma’s tone was sharp. “We have to get out of here. Now.”
I didn’t know where the warning was coming from. The sword? The jewel? Some combination of them? Whatever it was, it insisted that Liam and I needed to get the hell out of the tunnel immediately.
“We’re almost out,” Liam said as traffic inched its way forward.
But I could feel the magic swelling. It was like the shift in air pressure before a massive storm broke loose. “Liam, now. We have to get out now!”
A gap opened up in the other lane. Liam swerved into it, pissing off the Prius driver who’d fully intended to take that spot. He waited for traffic, which was lighter heading back to Manhattan, spaced out and turned the motorcycle into it.
We’d almost made it out when we heard the first scream.
I turned my head and swore as I saw the water spilling into the tunnel, sweeping up and over the cars. Oh gods, no. All of those people.
The tang of magic spiced the humid air. I felt the reverberation of a magical command. All the hair stood up on the back of my neck.
Liam shot out of the tunnel and skidded to a halt. I lept off the bike, sword in my hands before I realized what I was doing. I pointed it at the tunnel and focused my energy on pushing the water back out, back out. It needed to go back out.
The world around me grayed and fuzzed. My hands shook but I insisted. I reached out with my mind for Liam, the way Magda had taught me, using his solid body to ground myself before I reached for the elements.
Using Liam was different than using Kiesha. His energy was masculine and much much more dominant. And where touching Kiesha had been like putting one hand on her head, Liam’s energy grabbed ahold of me and pulled me in, like a tight embrace.
Back out. I commanded the water. But there was so much of it. Too much pressing in, pressing down.
Back OUT.
Another voice called out. Surge ahead.
Every cell in my body went on alert. I knew that voice. Hadn’t heard it in two years. No. It couldn’t be.
SURGE AHEAD! So much power, pushing back against my resistance.
Liam’s spirit held me tight. I had more to give.
BACK OUT! I ordered the water.
Slowly, ever so slowly, it obeyed.
My entire body shook as I commanded the elemental magic.
Repair. I ordered the stone of the tunnel. My muscles started to seize but I needed to do this one last thing. REPAIR.
Perfect. The other spellcaster, the twisted o
ne, said.
That voice. The lips from my drawing. Not possible.
“Emma!” As though from a distance, I heard Liam call my name a moment before the world around me faded to black.
I awoke sometime later in a big fluffy white bed. I blinked up, startled that the light had faded.
Something shifted beside the bed. “Emma?”
It wasn’t Liam. But the voice was familiar all the same.
“Gray?” I asked.
The werewolf looked relieved. “Thank the gods.”
“What happened?” I tried to sit up and then winced at the pounding in my temples.
“You saved a bunch of people. Almost burned yourself out doing it too.”
It came back in a rush, the feeling of uneasiness. The tunnel collapsing. Liam’s hoarse cry.
The voice.
“Where’s Liam?” I asked. My tongue was so thick, it felt like it had swollen to three times its standard size.
“I’m here, dove.” Soft footfalls on plush carpet and then Liam emerged. “Do you need me to fetch a healer?”
I shook my head and then winced at the stab of pain. “No. Maybe an aspirin.”
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Gray mused.
“You were there?”
“En route. We got North’s alert. I saw the water coming and then saw you,”
“The humans?” My eyes went wide.
“Saw nothing. Whatever it was you did when you got off the bike, it masked every trace of your actions.” Gray put a hand on my arm.
“Get her some water,” Liam snarled at Gray.
The second werewolf frowned and then nodded.
“You don’t need to bite his head off when I’m the one you’re mad at.”
He looked down at me with genuine rage. “You look too pathetic to shred and my temper is walking the razor’s edge.”
“Still,” I said. Not that I wanted to bring the Alpha werewolf’s full rage down on myself, but Gray shouldn’t have to suffer for it.
Liam got to his feet and began to pace. When Gray returned with the bottle of water, Liam barked at him that I needed a straw. I held my tongue.
Liam crouched beside me. His green eye seemed to glow with emerald fire. “Damn it, Emma. What were you thinking?”