Ever Strange

by Alisa Woods

  Thacker stopped at the edge of a wide yellow strip that marked the danger zone too close to the tracks below. “The Inmate Enterprise Program provides stimulating work for inmates while producing goods useful to the law-abiding market at large,” he was telling Ever. The man sounded like a damn brochure. Zane resisted rolling his eyes, but Ever seemed keenly attentive. She ran a magick empire of her own—maybe this was fascinating to her. “The train brings in raw materials—steel, magickally-compliant items for creating artifacts, parchment and scroll cases. The inmates perform their assigned tasks, then the finished goods are packaged and packed into crates for shipping, which are also carried out by train. We have a small fleet of trucks for transport as well.”

  “And your men are the ones who usually do the loading and unloading?” Zane asked. There were a half dozen prison guards—each with the regulation black uniform, sidearm, stun stick, and magick-canceling cuffs—standing just as stiff as Thacker, waiting for the train to arrive. The FBI had scrambled to get this plan in place ahead of Pennies’ arrival. Working with local law enforcement was often tricky but inside an actual penitentiary? Bringing Thacker’s people into the plan was required. And besides, it worked well for the cover story.

  “Yes, they’ll be standing by, per standard protocol, for unloading the shipment.” Thacker straightened the cuffs on his suit. “They’ve been briefed on the symptoms of your Talent, Agent Walker, and stand prepared to engage in this little… farce… you have conjured.” It was the first spark of something other than dead-eyed bureaucracy Zane had seen from the man. And it was predictable his only emotional tell would be disgust that Zane was an incubus—he’d seen the reaction before, and honestly, he couldn’t blame a rule-strict warden for being bent out of shape that an incubus FBI agent was operating on his turf. Or involving his guards in their scheme.

  Ever’s wide-eyed curiosity dropped into a scowl. “There are lives at stake, Warden Thacker. A little deception just might save them.”

  Zane appreciated the backup, even though it was unnecessary. To the warden, he said, “You should assure your men that faking it is far better than actually experiencing my Talent.”

  Thacker ignored him outright. “Of course, Ms. Strange. We’re happy to assist the Magickal Crimes Division in any way we can.” As if Ever were the agent, not him.

  Whatever. “So our exit strategy needs to be tight,” Zane said. “If Pennies buys that I’m controlling your guards—which shouldn’t be hard—and that I’ve brought Ms. Strange as a mea culpa offering—which will be a much difficult sell—then we need to have a straight line out of here. I don’t know how Pennies thinks he’ll waltz out of a prison complex with a bunch of contraband, but having me here as his literal Get Out of Jail Free card has to be tempting. I need to make good on that by walking us out.”

  “That won’t be a problem.” The warden almost sneered. “My guards will cooperate fully with your ruse.”

  Zane gave him a short nod, but he had a hard time believing it was that simple. Thacker didn’t seem like the type to sit well with letting criminals walk out of his prison. But wherever Pennies was keeping the missing overdose victims—the mysterious “hospital” he’d mentioned—it wasn’t here at Underwood. The prison had a hospital, but it was locked down and accounted for, just like everything in Thacker’s tightly-run operation. If the ruse worked and Pennies was willing to bring Zane—and Ever as his prisoner—to wherever he’d stashed his victims, they’d have to have a way out of the correctional facility to make it happen. If everything went bad, Zane might have to torture the location out of him. Not that the FBI engaged in torture, but Zane would gladly lend his Talent to the task—as much as anyone in the MCD, he was bent on rescuing Ever’s father and the others before another body got dumped and sent the city into a panic.

  Zane and Ever had taken off their wires—Ever’s had been partially shorted in the fight at the control tower anyways—but there were cameras everywhere in Underwood. The rest of the division, on-site and back at the field office, had eyes on the situation in case anything went sideways. Arrow was on point with SWAT on standby. The entire prison guard staff was alerted to the operation. This should go smoothly, with or without Pennies’ cooperation.

  Zane still had an itchy feeling running up and down his spine.

  “When do I start looking like your victim?” Ever’s brown eyes sparkled. As much as he didn’t want her in the middle of this, her part was critical.

  Zane snuck a look at his phone. Arrow was texting him a countdown. “Probably now. We’ve only got a couple minutes before the train arrives.”

  “I’ll be with your team beyond the dock’s security control point,” Thacker said. “If your operation is successful, we’ll fall back to allow egress from the facility.”

  Escape. It had to grind in Thacker’s craw. Zane repressed a smile. “Understood.”

  Thacker turned to leave, and Ever flashed Zane a smile. “I really should have taken an acting class in college.” Then she dropped to her knees and slumped over, ending up crumpled on the floor with a dazed, empty stare. The glamour spell he’d cast before should still be in effect for Pennies and his crew, given Zane never unwound it, but Ever’s dramatics should make it more convincing. Pennies knew she was a powerful witch—she had conjured an attack back in the control tower—but he would expect Zane to control her like he could with everyone else.

  He towered over her sprawled form. “It’s not too late to back out,” he offered, even though it was.

  She blinked, slow like a haze had clouded her mind… but her voice was clear. “Don’t you have a job to do?”

  He grinned.

  She lolled her head in the direction the train would come, giving her a good dead-eyed view. Then she let her hand drop to the floor behind her back, as if she could not hold it up, but in reality, so she could conjure out of the line of sight of Pennies when he debarked.

  If he debarked.

  Zane hoped this wouldn’t all be for naught.

  The metallic screech of train brakes sounded outside the enclosed prison dock. Zane signaled to the half dozen guards to start their portion of the show. It was amusing to watch them twitching and spasming and eventually ending up on the floor like Ever—two by the door, two by the pallets of finished goods, and two more near the train entrance end of the building. They kept twitching once they were down, which Zane figured would be a close-enough approximation. In theory, draining that many people at once would leave Zane convulsing himself—he hoped that would escape Pennies’ notice, at least long enough to negotiate some kind of deal. If anything went wrong, Ever was poised to take out Berzerker, leaving Zane free to stop Pennies in his tracks.

  But that was their last resort.

  The hanger door of the entrance rattled as it rolled upwards, opening a portal for the train. The noise was deafening as it came into view, brakes screaming, the maw of the engine barreling into the building. It seemed to be going too fast, bells clanging and dim headlights pulsing, but then the forward motion slowed. It kept going, slower and slower, rumbling through the exit door, which had rolled up unnoticed in all the din. Finally, mechanical beast lumbered to a stop with its engine half outside again. The first freight car was fully inside, while the rest of the train extended into the countryside around the prison.

  The silence was pocked with settling sounds.

  The freight car was rust brown with a single door that spanned the height but only a quarter of the width—it seemed designed to slide sideways. It was only a dozen feet away, on the other side of Ever sprawled on the floor and the yellow caution strip now next to the train. Zane stayed awkwardly in place. Would Pennies expect the prison guards to come open the door, planning to spring his attack then? If that didn’t happen, how long would it take to flush him out? The first few seconds of this would be surprise and confusion—if there were any hope of it going well, Zane might have to make the first move. He reached out mentally—the car was just inside his r
ange—and found two disturbances in the wild magick inside. One he recognized instantly. Berzerker. His powerful magickal short was unmistakable. The second was a charmer. Willow, most likely.

  Tension itched along Zane’s skin. They were waiting. For what? The guards were still doing their spasmodic simulation of being under his Talent. It was too late to yell for one of them to go open the door. That left Zane. Just as he made a move, the door screeched open—

  Pennies stood in the doorway, his gaze immediately finding Zane. He smirked as Berzerker leaped out of the train and landed on the yellow strip.

  Zane put up his hands in a show of good faith. “Pennies—”

  Berzerker thrust out his hands—

  Bolts of magick flew from them in five different directions, a sizzling, branching tree of energy randomly blasting out. Zane jolted and dropped instinctively to the floor, but the magick lightning storm missed him… and then ended as quickly as it began. Zane whipped his head around to see what had been struck… there were black holes in the walls…

  Where the cameras had been. What?

  Ever rolled fast by his feet, hands whipping out in Berzerker’s direction. He lifted into the air—not on a blast of air or any field Zane could see, just lifted straight up. Pennies shrunk back as Berzerker clawed and kicked at the air, suspended on seemingly nothing. How was she—

  A blast of pure magick streamed from Ever’s hand. Pennies ducked inside, avoiding the blast, but it caught his brother full in the chest, smashing him against the train car door. The rest of the magick blast was so strong, it rocked the entire car with its impact. Some of it splashed inside and caught another of Pennies’ crew, making him cry out and fall. Berzerker was a charred wreck by the time he dropped like a burnt sack of flour to the tracks below, falling out of view. He had to be dead—or he would be wishing he was.

  After a beat of silence, a voice called from inside the train. “Hold your magick, incubus.” Pennies. “Or you’ll never find them.”

  Zane blinked. “Find who?” What the hell? Had Pennies made him already? How?

  Pennies appeared in the doorway. “No need to play games, my friend. Or to scramble my mind, now that you’ve destroyed my shield.” His brother. Pennies threw a glance down where his brother had fallen, then Zane watched, amazed, as the cartel boss shrugged and stepped from the train onto the platform, as if utterly unconcerned for his brother’s fate.

  Zane rose quickly from where he’d dropped, and Ever rolled up into a crouch, still conjuring, the magick visible along her hands and up her arms. She reared back, ready to blast him, but she hesitated, looking to Zane. He put up his hand, then glanced back at the guards to see their reaction…

  They were all standing. Watching. No guns out, no stun sticks, nothing.

  What the fuck—

  Pennies stepped around Ever, who stumbled out of his way, and strode right up to Zane. “I’ve had a long train ride to think about just what kind of man you are, incubus.” They were eye-to-eye now, not even two feet apart. His jacket was still singed from when Ever had blasted him the first time, in the control tower.

  “I’ve been thinking, too,” Zane said. Maybe Pennies hadn’t made him after all. Maybe this was recoverable. Berzerker had attacked them first. “I made a mistake. Got greedy—”

  “Not greedy enough.” Pennies’ smirk was back. He lifted his chin to signal something over Zane’s shoulder.

  The guards. Zane’s heart stuttered as they, one by one, drew their guns and pointed them at Zane. And Ever.

  Fuck.

  She was giving him a wide-eyed look, hands ready for whatever insane conjuring he had just witnessed. Gravitational magick? Very rare. And her raw magick was powerful enough to rock an entire train car. But they couldn’t blast their way out of this situation—not and still find Pennies’ prisoners. And with the guards somehow involved…

  The warden. He had to be corrupt as fuck to help Pennies, but what about… the cameras. That was why Berzerker had taken them out first. They’d known the FBI was here. Pennies had to have known all along.

  They were so fucked.

  “What do you mean I’m not greedy enough?” Zane asked, a sickening feeling clawing at the back of his throat. He could control everyone here in the room. But the warden had control of the guards throughout the facility and the locked doors between them. Zane’s partner, Arrow, was out there with the rest of the FBI SWAT forces, but they would be heavily outnumbered if the fight was suddenly between the warden’s men and them—plus Arrow would have no warning. The bureau had been blinded—that would spring them into action. They should already be bursting in to contain the situation… unless the warden had stopped them.

  Fuck.

  “You think you can earn the trust of the adepts?” Pennies sneered. “You think the FBI will care about an incubus like you the second you become useless to them? Or a liability? The adepts understand only one thing—magick. Who has it. Who doesn’t. Deciding what’s legal. What’s not. But none of them are asking the right question.”

  “Which is?” Zane was transfixed by the crazy in Pennies’ eyes. He almost looked high with how dilated his pupils were, how excited the nervous twitch of his lips. Zane was incubus, and he could sense the tiniest tremor of sexual pleasure—Pennies was getting off on this.

  “How does one control an uncontrollable beast?” Pennies flicked a glance behind him. One of the guards had come up to him… with fucking cuffs.

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” Zane slammed into the guard’s mind and dropped him into an orgy of his own internal making. His spasms were real this time, and all the more horrifying. It flooded Zane with magick, making him grit his teeth and lean into Pennies. “Tell me where you’re keeping them, and I won’t do the same to you.”

  But Pennies just smiled. “I have something you want, incubus. But it’s not what you think.” His smile twisted. “And you have something I want as well.”

  Zane’s gaze involuntarily went to Ever, who was now standing menacingly behind Pennies, hands ready. “He’s not going to talk his way out of this,” she ground out. She looked ready to magickally burn the location of her father and the other victims out of Pennies.

  Zane wouldn’t necessarily stop her, either.

  Pennies twisted to give Ever a casual glance. “Oh, yes. I’d like to have her, too.” Then back to Zane, “But you most of all, incubus.”

  Zane narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  Pennies didn’t answer, just raised his hand and beckoned his crew out of the train car. One dragged Willow onto the platform. The other two carried a wooden crate, about two foot on a side, that seemed heavy by the way they were hoisting it along.

  He turned back to Zane. “You can try to stop me—and the deaths of all those people will be on your hands. Or you can put on the cuffs, incubus, and come with me… and be part of changing the world.”

  “Fuck you—”

  A blaring alarm cut him off.

  A single, strobing red light went off over the door. The alarm sounded again, the clamor of it fading enough to hear the echo of it… in the distance. The entire prison was sounding the alarm. Zane looked to Ever, but she seemed as confused as he.

  Pennies looked even more smug. “Riot alarm.”

  Holy shit.

  In the distraction, Zane had released the guard who had approached him with the cuffs. The man was dazed but slowly climbing to his feet. Another guard had come closer to help him. He held out the cuffs to Pennies, who held them out to Zane.

  He took them.

  Ever stared on in horror, like she couldn’t believe he would even contemplate it. But she had to know how fucked the situation had suddenly become. The warden was corrupt. He was in Pennies’ pocket. He’d just pulled an all-prison riot alarm to lock the place down which meant no one was getting in or out—and they ran the place. Zane could try to incubus his way out, but there were too many. He’d be sick before they got through the first ce
ll block. He had his Glock, but he was already outgunned just in this room. The rest of the agents on scene were locked down, or possibly worse. And Ever could try to blast her way through, but that would only get her dead the moment someone had a clean shot.

  They were simply outnumbered.

  No, there was only one way out—go deep into Pennies’ world and hope for a better chance later. The strongest irony was that Zane would go there in cuffs.

  He clicked them over one wrist and held the other up to the guard. The moment they were in place, his connection to his Talent cut off like a switch. The guard patted him down, found his Glock, and took that too. This was where he’d been headed all those years ago when he almost chose the illegal path—the one where he would use his Talent to destroy his mother’s killer and go to jail for the rest of his life.

  Irony had him still here, in prison, in cuffs, magickally locked down.

  “That one, too,” Pennies said, offhandedly, gesturing the guard over to Ever.

  “Oh, fuck no!” She started to conjure, but the guard sprung after her with what had to be a magick-enhanced strength. He must have seen what she’d already done to Berzerker. The guard broke her concentration as he tackled her, and Zane could only flinch and watch helplessly as she fought him, grabbing and punching and kicking on the floor. She managed to jam a fist full of magick into his chest, jolting him away, but by that time, another guard and Pennies’ three goons had arrived to help subdue her. Willow, the Charmcare girl, tried to pull the guard off Ever, but he just knocked her to the ground.