by Mary Hughes
“I-I’m fine.” His pained gasp said he was anything but. She glimpsed why he got exasperated when she said it.
“You’re not.” At least one broken rib, possibly a punctured lung. He was definitely not fine.
“I will be.” He shuddered another breath. His focus wasn’t her but where Jayden whacked Bruiser with the broom, the alpha whittling the thing to kindling with his claws. “Pan has…healing potions…for exactly this sort of thing.”
“You get into fights often, do you?”
“Used to.” He tried to gently peel off her fingers. “N-need to finish this.”
She glanced back to see Bruiser slice off the last inch of broom. As Jayden tossed aside the remains of the handle, a disgusted look on his face, Bruiser growled and leaped for Gabriel. She flung out her arms and bowed her back, a shield to protect her mate.
But the alpha came in fast and low—for her.
She squealed and scrambled to turn herself pointy ends out.
The damned wizard prince thrust himself bodily in front of her, taking the brunt of the trash-compacter alpha’s hit.
Gabriel went down with a soft sigh.
“No!” Rationality and even iota talent deserting her, Emma leaped onto the wolf-man, clawing at him with weak human fingernails, screaming and scratching.
“Hey,” Bruiser flailed and swatted, finally elbowing her off. She landed heavily with an oof. He completely crushed her with, “That tickled.”
Screaming, she launched herself at him.
Bruiser punched her in the face. As she reeled, he grabbed her head and smashed it into the wall.
While she stumbled, stunned, he scooped her up and stuffed her under one arm. “You’re mine, cunt.” He started for the door, Emma dangling from his arm.
“Wake up.” Pan’s voice, accompanied by slaps, came from behind. “He’s taking her.”
She raised her swirling head. The door seemed to jolt nearer with each clumping step. She tried reaching for her iota talent…even that had vanished in the whirling of her brain.
She was lost.
Pan’s voice came louder. “Bruiser is taking Emma.”
Gabriel appeared in the doorway, chest heaving, larger than life to Emma’s fuzzy sight.
“You are not taking her anywhere.” His tone wasn’t a wolf’s growl but something deeper, seeming to resonate from the very caves of Socrates.
Bruiser sneered, “How you gonna stop me, nerd boy?”
Gabriel simply drew both hands behind his right shoulder, clenched as if about to throw a basketball—then flung them forward with a booming, “Stop.”
His wand was in one hand.
Power rolled from the wand toward her and Bruiser, shimmering visibly on the air like a heat wave. She closed her eyes and braced for the pain of impact.
Nothing touched her. She thought it missed.
Until Bruiser woofed in surprise—and collapsed, dropping her.
She hit the floor on hands and knees, her palms grinding into shards of broken glass. Pain bit into her flesh.
Gone in an instant as Gabriel lifted her into a smothering muscular hug. “Darling Emma! Are you all right?”
He wheezed it, and she could almost hear his broken ribcage creak. She pulled away to put a breath of space between them.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not—”
“I am.” Her brain finally steadying, she held up her hands, skin already healing. “See?”
“Thank God.” But his star-shot eyes were a pain-filled blue instead of their normal rich blue-green.
She clasped his pale sweaty face. “I’m fine. But are you?”
“He will be,” Pan drawled—then whacked Gabriel upside the head. “Nice job, idiot. Even tone-deaf Ryder couldn’t have missed that magical sonic boom.”
“Couldn’t be helped,” the witch wheezed. “Potion?”
“Yeah. You haven’t needed a jumbo for quite some time.” The familiar searched around his body, finally pulling a vial from somewhere inside his shirt. “Hope it hasn’t passed its expiration date. Drink it quick. We don’t know how long it will take that jackass Enforcer to get here.” He thumbed off a cork and passed the small bottle to Gabriel as he handed Emma her journal.
Gabriel tossed the vial back. Emma clutched her journal, momentarily mesmerized by the sight of his strong throat working.
“Boys and girls, the question isn’t how long till the Enforcer arrives.” Jayden peered out the broken door. “He’s here now. Your aunt is trying to slow him, but he’ll see you in a moment—oh, whoops. She stomped that stupid cricket familiar he has. Dunno why he doesn’t coat the thing in chocolate and have done with it. That’ll buy you a few seconds. Go out the back. I’ll help Linda.”
Gabriel was already moving, grabbing Emma’s hand on the way, spinning her around him like a top.
Well. Whatever his feelings were toward her, whatever impediment her berserker was to their relationship, it didn’t slow him down when it came to running away with her.
As she swept an arc, she got a clear view of the front door and window, the swizzle-stick Enforcer in profile, scowling down at Gabriel’s little round aunt. Behind them, a third person trotted into view.
Shalla.
She caught sight of Emma. Their gazes met.
Shalla’s mouth shaped one word. Eyes.
Gabriel hustled Emma away from the store’s entrance and out the back.
Chapter Twenty-One
Emma found herself in an alley beside Gabriel, Pan crowding out behind them. “Where to?” Her voice was breathy.
She’d expected Pan, as the wisdom creature, to answer, but it was Gabriel who seized her hand tighter and started jogging. “The B-and-B.”
“What?” Pan fell into a lope alongside. “Are you insane?”
Emma, shocked into silence, stumbled behind Gabriel. But the familiar had said what she was thinking.
“Utterly nuts.” Gabriel grinned. “What happened back there was too close to disaster on a number of fronts. We need to get away. Far away. Farther than the bookstore or pet store or anywhere in Matinsfield.”
“Dunno if you noticed, Oh Mighty Wizard,” Pan managed to drawl while running flat out, “But the Matinsfield Bed-and-Breakfast is in, huh, surprise, Matinsfield.”
“Yes, but so’s my car—with the Enforcer several blocks away at the pet store. Which gives us a window of opportunity. If we can get back to the B-and-B before he does, we can get wheels.”
“If we get there before the Enforcer, and if we can drive out of town without him seeing you, and if he hasn’t put a tracer on the car…and if things I haven’t even thought of yet.”
“He did put a psychic eye on my car. But deactivating that will take a few minutes—less time than it’ll take to get Auntie’s car running. Or we can wait until after we jack my car to remove the eye.”
“We c-can’t leave town now,” Emma chuffed. Damn his long, long legs. “Your sister, your a-aunt…need us.” And had Shalla arrived at the pet store with Ryder or Bruiser?
“We’re not leaving permanently. Just to think, to plan. Jayden gave us two scoops of heavy information. If we can free my sister simply by figuring out how to keep some jails from cracking, it’ll be worth the few hours we take.”
“We can do that in town,” Pan pointed out.
“No, we can’t. If the Enforcer saw us, he’ll get a tracer from the Council. Even if he didn’t, he could fall across us at any time.”
Emma stuttered, “Won’t the Enforcer g-get suspicious, seeing the c-car missing?”
“Hopefully he’ll think Pan took it.”
The familiar said dryly, “Pan can’t take it, not with the two of you. Two-seater, remember?”
“Yeah, sorry, buddy. You’ll have to use your panther to run behind us.”
“In the middle of the street in the middle of the day. There’s a YippyTube.com video waiting to happen.”
Suddenly the very car they were discussing r
oared around the corner, headed away from them, an auburn head behind the wheel.
“What the chicken-fried fuck…? Goodwin,” Gabriel shouted.
The cat familiar executed a very neat handbrake turn, roared toward them and braked to a stop an inch from their toes.
“Nice driving,” Pan said.
Goodwin raised an elegant eyebrow. “You expected otherwise?” He turned to Gabriel. “Well done on the magical airball, by the way. The moment it shuddered on the etheric, the Enforcer was out of there. I was able to clean the car of bugs both physical and metaphysical.”
“You’d already decided we’d need the car? But I just figured it out.”
“Dear boy. I am a wisdom creature.” He disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a fat orange cat sitting in the driver’s seat, primly washing a forepaw.
“You’d better stay with Auntie.” Gabriel threw open the driver’s door and slid into the seat, displacing the tom onto the middle console. “She’s at Jayden’s.”
The cat only gave him a dark grimace and resumed his grooming.
“Fine.” Gabriel rolled eyes at the cat. “If it keeps you and Auntie out of trouble. Emma, get in.”
“Wait. Why don’t I sit on Pan’s lap? That way we can all ride in the car.”
“Not happening.” Gabriel slashed a glare at the other male.
“It’s a car ride, mon sorcier.” The familiar was already sliding into the passenger seat. “I’m not marrying the lady. Hey, if my animal form wasn’t so big, I’d do the same as Goodwin.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to object—from the bushel of air he inhaled, quite vociferously.
“Drive now, yell later.” Emma slid onto Pan’s knees before Gabriel could get a word out and firmly shut the door. “Drive, Gabriel,” she repeated as the stubborn witch still drew air. “Before you-know-who shows up.”
“I can drive and yell at the same time.” But he put the car in gear and hit the gas. Emma slammed into Pan’s torso, solid, but not as big as Gabriel’s. “The reason I did not want you to ride on his lap wasn’t prurient, by the way.” He shifted quickly up through the gears. “It’s because now neither of you is protected by a seat belt. And I hate to think what an air bag would do to you if we were in an accident.”
“I’m a shifter. I heal almost anything.”
“‘Almost’ being the operative term. The results outside of which include death, death, and, oh yes, death.”
This was not an argument she could win. Time to distract him by changing the subject. “Back at the pet store, you used magic. How much can you do with the limiter?”
He raised a brow at her—subtext being he knew her question was an attempt at distraction. She winced. He continued, “So the next time I say you will not ride double…”
As if she could side-track the stubborn male.
“…you will listen. Both of you.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Wizard Prince sir.” Pan saluted. “Pointing out that the chances of the extreme event happening are minuscule compared to the chance of Emma getting retaken by Bruiser or me getting shot by animal control if you’d left either of us behind.”
“Neither of which is fatal.” Gabriel shot a glare at Pan—two brows raised.
Both the familiar and Emma flinched at that. Finally Emma managed weakly, “We trust your driving?”
“Yeah. Let’s hope your trust isn’t misplaced.”
It wasn’t. He got them safely to a strip motel off Highway 10 where he went alone into the office, returning with two room keys, one of which he tossed to Pan.
The familiar caught it easily. “Use your own identity?”
“Of course not. The Council doesn’t often work with mundane police, but if that dickwad Enforcer starts looking, I don’t want any chance of him finding us.” He showed a driver’s license in the name of “Tom Baker” although the photo was Gabriel. “Here’s the plan. I’ll sweep the rooms. You guard Emma while Goodwin—crispy crap. There he goes, tom-catting around.”
Goodwin, as the cat Mr. Kibbles, had hopped out of the car and sauntered off.
Eyes following the proud flag of orange tail, Gabriel amended, “Emma, you’re with me. Pan, you secure the car while I sweep the rooms.”
“Gotcha.”
As Pan raised the roof on the roadster, Emma followed Gabriel. He unlocked the first of two side-by-side rooms.
“While we have a moment alone,” she began tentatively. “I was wondering how you felt. About us, about my iota talent—”
“Not now, please.” He held up a palm so forbidding she winced. True, her timing had been less than perfect, but the questions were so important, at least to her. She parked herself in the lone chair, hands between her knees, and watched him.
He efficiently quartered the room, alternately closing his eyes and muttering strange phrases. She thought of easier questions she could ask—did Ryder know they were out of jail, how much power could Gabriel muster, could his anklet be tracked, although if it could, Ryder would’ve already nabbed them—but now she was afraid to ask the most important.
Are you ashamed of me?
Although, hell, her own mother and brother were. She herself was. Why wouldn’t he be?
When Gabriel was done with his sweep, Pan hauled in three chairs from the second room, and they sat around the table to talk.
Pan said, “Are we going to wait for the cat?”
“No,” Gabriel said. “If he’s gone tomcatting, he won’t be back for awhile.”
“If he has and your aunt gets hold of him, the vet’s scalpel won’t be far behind.”
“The vet’s meat cleaver, if they’re a couple. She’d make sure of it.” Gabriel raised his pant leg and grimaced. “What do you think, a double lock spell?”
Pan leaned in for a closer look at the anklet. “Yes, with a backup. You’re not getting that off anytime soon.” He straightened.
“You’re probably right.” Gabriel swept his wand from the air, pointed it at the anklet, and twisted. The anklet remained stubbornly locked. With a disgusted grunt, he let his pant leg fall. “Where do you think Goodwin’s gone?”
“To get sustenance.” The distinguished voice floated in from the back of the room, though the familiar himself wasn’t visible. “And to check outside security. There’s a weak spot here.”
Gabriel exchanged a frown with Pan. The familiar rose and disappeared into the bathroom. A moment later he reemerged and went to the front door. “There’s a vent back there,” he explained as he opened the door. “No reason to think we’ll have eavesdroppers, but you’ll need to magically filter it just in case.”
“Gotcha.” Gabriel left to take care of it, but Emma’s attention was snagged by Goodwin entering, his arms laden with white paper bags.
Bags smelling of dripping burgers and hot crisp fries.
Prickles broke out inside her mouth. Her stomach gurgled.
“Here we go.” The cat familiar smiled at her as he set bag after bag on the small round table. “I doubted you’d eaten much since the ferry crossing, and I wanted to make sure we all had enough to hold us for a while. We had tea at the bookstore, but I wasn’t sure about you.”
The barest veneer of manners kept Emma from snatching a bag from his hands. “I had a mouthful of cake at my mother’s and a bite of the Jamies sisters’ cookies. Maple bacon.”
“I’m not sure that qualifies as food.” Goodwin offered her a box smelling of ground meat, Thousand Island dressing, pickles, and cheese. “Here you go.”
“No.” The syllable came out a bit mushy with her suddenly drool-filled mouth. “Gabriel needs it more, since he’s been doing magic.”
“Ladies first,” the witch called from the bathroom. “Besides, this may take me a while.”
“A simple filter won’t work?” Pan asked.
Gabriel’s beautiful face stuck out from the doorway. “Not since a family of mice has taken up residence. I’m trying to work around them. Eat, Emma.”
“Well, if you ins
ist…” Emma grabbed the box, yanked out the sandwich, and bit into hot, juicy burger. The tang of ketchup and mustard burst in her mouth along with grilled meat and soft, sweet bun.
She’d eaten the whole thing and was licking the juices from her fingers when Gabriel came back, clapping his hands in an “all done” motion.
“That’s that. Ooh, are those chocolate shakes?” He grabbed one, pulled up a chair next to Emma’s, sat, and sucked down half the contents of the large cup. “All right. Recap. We need to figure out how to safely use the partial key to break Sophia out of jail.” He reached into a bag and grabbed a hamburger, barely unwrapping it before he inhaled it in two bites. “Preferably before the Enforcer finds Emma and I are escapees.”
“Does he know we’re out?” Emma wedged in one of her safe questions. “Can he track you by your anklet?”
“Possibly, and no.” He grabbed a second burger in one hand and fries in the other, disappearing both in alternating bites. “I can’t emphasize enough how impossible a second jail door is. Unless the Enforcer was told or Jayden didn’t cover my magical signature in the pet store quickly enough, he won’t have a clue. The limiter is just a limiter, no GPS, not even the magical equivalent.”
“Enforcers can obtain tracer spells,” Goodwin said. “But those require at least three multi-element witches working in tandem, and have to be specifically crafted for each skip.”
“Not all our problems are with the Enforcer,” Pan said. “There’s the prophecy—”
“Garbage,” Gabriel scowled. “Wrapped in rhymes to look pretty.”
“The quatrain predicted the key.” Goodwin elegantly nibbled his burger. “You can’t deny that, or the magic when the wolf pendant and journal locked together.”
“We all felt that,” Pan agreed. “And now we know it’ll get your sister released.”
“If we can figure out how to keep all the other jails closed.” Gabriel raised both hands, still holding fries and burger, though now both were chomped down to nubs. “And it does nothing to solve any of our other problems. How can we use the key to defeat the Enforcer or Bruiser or even figure out how Emma’s mother and brother fit in?”
“We do know how Bruiser fits in,” Emma said. “He wants me in his harem.”