It was barely nine in the morning and they managed to look carelessly gorgeous. It made Ivy furious.
If she had known they were going to barge in this morning, she would have put on a different outfit. She probably looked like a freezing librarian to them. She was wearing a thick green corduroy dress with a faded brown sweater under it. Her thick cream-colored leggings had seemed like the practical choice, considering the weather but now she wished she had put on her cute skinny jeans instead. Finishing the look off were her special winter clogs and puffy down coat. It was not a flattering outfit. It was a warm outfit.
I am buying any cute boots Anne has in stock the second I get to work she seethed to herself.
“Yes, them. Why are they here?” This was supposed to be a private meeting.
“They’re your body guards,” Ben murmured off handedly as he scanned the papers Ivy had set on his desk. “What language is this written in?”
“Old Italian,” Ivy answered before getting back on topic. “My body guards? Why would I need bodyguards? I thought you said I was safe here.”
Ben must have heard the panic creeping into Ivy’s voice because he set down the papers. “You are safe,” he reassured her. “Both Paul and I gave you our word. And here, our word is law. No wolf has gone against it.” His eyes quickly slid behind Ivy before focusing back on her. “Lawrence McDowell, however, is not my wolf.”
Ivy’s heart rate spiked. “You’ve found him?”
After trying to steal back his spell, Lawrence McDowell had disappeared. Ivy knew Ben had people looking for him, but as far as she knew, they couldn’t find a trace.
“No, we haven’t found him but that doesn’t mean he isn’t out there,” Ben gestured to the back of his office. “Hence the bodyguards.”
Ivy looked back at Ezra and Ezekiel. This was the first time the three of them had been in the same room since that day in the woods. For weeks they had been an itch on the back of her neck. She felt hyper aware of them.
She wanted to yell at them. She wanted to cry. She wanted to text Anne and get drunk. The absolute last thing she wanted was for the Tate brothers to be following her around with Ben’s blessing.
“A-and so you put these two,” she sputtered, “goons on the case?”
Ben leaned to the side to get a better look of Ezra and Ezekiel. “Goons is a really good description of them.” He gave a satisfied noise before straightening. “I actually didn’t assign them to you, Paul did. On paper anyways,” he muttered. “So please, if you have any complaints talk to Paul. It’s the least he deserves.”
Ivy took slow steps forward until she could lean over Ben’s giant desk. She gestured for Ben to lean in too. “Does it have to be them?”
Ezra growled letting Ivy know they had heard her.
Ben cut him off with a look. “Paul thought you’d feel more comfortable with Ezra and Ezekiel. You know them better than my other Enforcers. Besides, they’re some of our best Enforcers. They would have been assigned to you anyways.”
Ivy opened her mouth to tell Ben she wanted new guards.
“Do you have a problem with us being assigned to you?” Ezekiel chimed in.
And just like that, the gauntlet had been thrown.
Ezra might be the more volatile of the two but Ezekiel’s mouth caused just as many problems. The man loved being a smartass.
Ivy closed her mouth with a snap and straightened. “No, no problem. I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a conflict of interest since you two follow me around like lost dogs already.”
Ezekiel smile widened. His smile was devastating.
Ivy felt her cheeks flush. With a snarl she turned back around. “Do you want to hear what I’ve found?” She tried to keep her voice from letting them know how angry she was.
Ben smirked, “I’d love to. I’m so glad we have a magic historian to help right now.”
Ivy sniffed indignantly. She took a moment to pull herself together. She was here for a job. The faster she finished it, the faster she could leave.
“There’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that I was able to find out who wrote the spell that Lawrence hid. The bad news is that they died out centuries ago and there are almost no records about them.”
Ben made a disappointed noise in the back of his throat. “What have you been able to find out about them?”
Ivy cleared her throat. “They were a tiny Coven of witches called the Benandanti.” The Benandanti were such a small fraction of magic users that Ivy had to wonder if fate had led her to them. There were almost no records of them.
Ben bent over the dossier again. “And they were shifters? That can’t be right.”
“They weren’t exactly shifters,” Ivy corrected.
“What does that mean?” Ezra broke in. “You’re either a shifter or you’re not.”
Ivy shot him a look that should have killed him. He lifted an eyebrow as if to say “That all you got?” If there were ever a time to go firebug, now was it. When Ezra didn’t burst into flames Ivy turned back to Ben.
“The Benandanti were made up of both witches and shifters.” She took a deep breath and started to explain. “They were a very small group who lived in Northern Italy during the sixteenth century. They weren’t around for very long and honestly, after looking at their history I’m surprised they lasted as long as they did.”
“Why’s that?” This time it was Ezekiel who interrupted. He smiled at Ivy when she shot him a nasty look.
Focusing back on the Alpha she asked, “The abridged version?” Ben nodded. “Everyone hated them.”
“The sixteenth century wasn’t a great time for any supernatural creatures,” Ben argued.
“The Inquisition must have made life interesting for them,” Ezekiel muttered.
“That was definitely a factor,” she agreed. “It did not help that the time period was volatile for everyone.”
Ivy pulled out her own notebook. “The Benandanti formed a small township comprised of witches and shifters. In fact, as far as I know, they were the only magic users in history to partner with shifters.” Ivy looked up, “Just warning you, there isn’t a lot of information to go off of. The Benandanti never kept a written record of their own. Both histories said something about that.”
“Tell us what you know,” Ben reassured.
“The area of Italy we are talking about was constantly in upheaval. There were revolts from humans, Covens were constantly fighting each other, at one point the Habsburgs took over. It was a mess. Originally, a small Pack and an even smaller Coven came together trying to protect themselves. It was a partnership meant to bring stability to both groups. The witches kept the crops growing and everyone healthy. The shifters acted as protectors. The formation of this new group, the Benandanti, was mutually beneficial.”
“Oh, I am sure the other Packs and Covens were wild about that,” Ezra said dripping with sarcasm.
Ivy just rolled her eyes because he was right. “They became the target of every magical being in three kingdoms. So not only were they fighting human armies but they had to contend with magical attacks.” Ivy paused, looking up at Ben. “This is just inference, but I think the Covens in the area banded together to fight them.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Ben asked. Ivy nodded. “What makes you think that?”
“At one point a group of German druden attacked the town.” Ivy shook her head rereading her notes. “There were over fifty of them. I don’t know many Covens big enough in our own time that could summon that many drude. It’s highly unlikely that a Coven big enough to summon fifty druden existed in sixteenth century Italy.”
Ben sent the brothers a confused look. They both shook their heads. “What is a druden?”
Sometimes, Ivy forgot that she was talking to people who didn’t know much about magic. “A druden is a group of drude. They’re evil spirits who invade people’s dreams and turn them into nightmares. They’re terrible little things. The constant n
ight terrors drive people mad. The only way to get rid of a drude is to pass them onto an animal and then sacrifice that animal. The Benandanti lost half a flock of sheep to the druden.”
“That is a very sinister way to attack someone. You get to watch them be driven crazy by nightmares and then starve to death when they try and get rid of them.” Ezekiel made a noise in the back of his throat, obviously impressed. “That’s not too bad.”
“No, it’s a great tactic,” Ivy agreed. “The Benandanti had a lot of creative enemies. They got their asses handed to them for decades.” Ivy shrugged, “They refused to move to a safer area or become more offensive in their tactics. I can’t find records of them ever being the aggressors.”
“You said they weren’t around for very long.” Ben leaned back in his chair. He was a big man. For a second, Ivy wasn’t sure if the chair would stay on its feet but after a pained squeak it stayed upright. “What happened?”
“They disappeared from history.” She had read records from the Salici Sacri Coven, one of the Benandanti’s rivals. They had quite a few entries in their histories about destroying entire Benandanti villages. Ivy assumed they finally achieved the goal. “I think they got wiped out.”
Ben stared at the papers on his desk. He didn’t say anything. Ivy wasn’t sure what he expected to see. They’d gone over most of her notes. The longer the silence lasted, the more tense Ivy got. She nearly jumped of her skin when one of the Tates shifted their feet.
“Do you have any insight as to why Lawrence would use the Benandanti’s spells? Is there an advantage we,” he gestured to him and the Tates, “might be missing because we’re not magic users?”
Ivy wanted to tell him no outright, but she forced herself to think about it. “I can go on the internet right now and find you anti-shifter spells that would be easier to perform and would be devastating and they would have step by step instructions to follow. This spell was barely a vague outline,” Ivy threw her hands up. “I do not know what he thinks he’s gaining by using such a difficult spell to interpret.”
Ben thought for a moment. “What are the chances he has a full spell book?”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to venture a guess because, quite frankly, she didn’t know. “I don’t know why he would rip a page out of a grimoire he owned.” Ivy answered. “I would have hidden the entire grimoire if I had it.”
“Or he could have wanted to keep that one spell to himself,” Ezra cut in.
Ivy rolled her eyes, “Or he could have stolen in from someone else. All of this is speculation”
Ben’s head jerked sharply. His eyes focused past Ivy. She turned slightly to see Ezra and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was nodding his head, his lips pursed in concentration. Ezra’s brows were so deeply furrowed that they cast shadows across his eyes.
Ivy looked between the three men. They were having some kind of silent conversation. She didn’t know werewolves were telecommunicators. Although, she did know a few crow shifters who were. Either way, they were pointedly ignoring her.
Ivy tried to picture the spell. The calf skin had been worn until it was more like fabric than leather. The ink had faded from centuries of sun damage. In the corner of one side were faint markings where the author had outlined the edges of where the text should be. She couldn’t remember seeing binding marks. She could have missed them. With the spell destroyed it didn’t matter. She should have taken a photo.
“Can we track the spell book?” Ben’s question startled Ivy out of her thoughts.
“The spell turned to dust. Even if you could trace its origin, I nullified its magical properties with that explosion in the woods.”
Ezra swore.
Ben sighed. “I was hoping this would be easy.” He sent Ivy an apologetic smile. Well, he probably meant it to be apologetic. With his dark hair and jawline, it came off as adorably charming. “I’m sorry you wasted all that time translating old Italian.”
“No problem,” the words came out breathy.
Ezra and Ezekiel growled.
Ben just chuckled before he got serious. “If we can’t get access to Lawrence’s playbook then we have to do something else.” He zeroed in on Ivy, “How difficult is it to locate a person?”
“A spell, a personal item, and a few materials,” Ivy felt reluctant to tell Ben because she knew what he was going to ask next.
“Can you locate Lawrence for us?”
Ivy groaned internally. “I can get you a spell and set it all up,” Ivy hedged. Here was the part Ivy had been dreading. She knew that eventually the Alpha would ask her to perform magic and she would have to decline.
Ben, the smart bastard that he was, picked up on her wording immediately. “You’ll perform the spell too, right?”
Unable to maintain eye contact, Ivy made a show of putting her notebook away. “No, but it shouldn’t be a complicated spell. Any magic user could perform it. You can find someone in no time.”
“Why would we need to find someone else to perform the spell when we already have a witch on retainer?” Ezra’s voice was low enough to prickle the skin along Ivy’s neck. His eyes flashed yellow. He was furious. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
Her spine straightened at his accusation, “No.”
Ezra’s eyes narrowed. She saw Ezekiel shift slightly.
“You’re lying.”
Ivy whipped around at Ben’s words. Her heart was in her throat. She laughed nervously, “No, I’m not.”
Ben tapped the side of his nose. “You can’t lie to a shifter, Ivy.”
“Your heart rate increased, you started to sweat, and honestly you look guilty as hell,” Ezra happily listed.
“Ivy,” Ben pressed.
“I don’t practice magic.” Ivy hoped that the conversation would end there.
“That’s a blatant lie,” Ezra didn’t bother hiding his annoyance.
Ben sat back in his chair, “We were all in the woods. We all know you have magic.”
Ivy’s stomach turned sour. He wasn’t lying. She had used magic. That had been an exception though. She hated that she felt pressured to defend her rule.
“I’d say those were pretty extenuating circumstances, wouldn’t you?” Ivy rubbed her forearm trying to dispel the nervous energy building under her skin. “People were dying. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.”
Ezekiel nodded accepting her answer. Ezra was looking at her with calculating eyes.
“Anne said you did magic yesterday,” Ben said.
Icy shivers broke out across Ivy’s skin. Damn pillow talk. Ivy really should have made Anne promise not to tell anyone.
“You performed a spell?” Ezra accused.
“What happened?” Ezekiel demanded.
“I…” Ivy stumbled.
“Who saw you?” Ezra stepped towards her.
Ivy couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe. Heat flashed across her freezing skin.
“Woah,” Ezra jumped back throwing an arm across his brother’s chest. They both stared in shock at the ground.
Ivy glanced down. She blinked trying to clear spots from her eyes.
Thin, spring green vines were growing out of the carpet. Each stalk swayed until they touched Ivy’s denim clad legs. Half a dozen vines were wrapping themselves around Ivy as they grew.
Ivy’s head shot up. None of the men in the room moved. They were staring at the bush growing in the middle of Ben’s office.
Horrified, Ivy dropped to her knees and started ripping the plants out of the carpet.
“I’m sorry. I can fix this,” Ivy chanted, ignoring the thorns digging into her palms as more vines sprouted. “I can fix this.”
They just kept appearing. Every time she pulled one out, another would grow. The vines kept pushing through the ground.
A hand rested on her shoulder. “Ivy.” Ezekiel’s brown eyes were full of compassion. “Stop.”
The plants turned to dust. Startled, Ivy stared at the grey pile in her hands. That shouldn
’t have happened. She pinched the dust between her fingers, confused.
“So that’s what Anne meant,” Ben said quietly, almost to himself.
And just like that Ivy was firmly planted back in reality. A reality where the Alpha of Black Bird had just seen her lose control of her magic.
Ivy froze, crouching on the floor, waiting for someone to pounce.
“Is, um, this,” Ben gestured to the pile of ash on the floor, “why you won’t perform the locating spell?”
Slowly, Ivy stood. “That’s one reason,” she finally said.
Ben made a noise in the back of his throat. “I get what Anne was saying last night,” he said to himself. Ivy would have to remember that Anne was a tattletale.
“If you were a wolf, I’d say you’re stressed. That’s an easy thing to fix. Find the stress trigger and manage it. Or you’re newly changed. New wolves also have trouble,” he looked for the right word, “holding onto their other selves.” He frowned and shook his head. “That’s shifter stuff though. I don’t know how it works with witches.”
Ben pointed to the Tates. “One of you needs to get a personal item of McDowell’s. I want to test out the locating spell as fast as we can.” Ben turned back to Ivy. “How fast can we get a witch to perform the spell?”
“I have a lead I can check on today.” It was a feeble lead but Ivy didn’t admit that. “I don’t know how fast they’ll be ready. I’ll have to go ask them first.”
Ben nodded his understanding. “Touch bases with your lead and shoot me a text today. Otherwise keep up on the Benandanti angle. I want to know why McDowell is using their spells.” No one moved. “Dismissed.”
Ivy glanced behind her. Ezekiel gently pulled her into the hall. Ezra shut the door behind them. They began walking towards the front door.
“He’s Alpha. He’s used to giving orders,” Ezekiel said like that explained everything.
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