by Mary Hughes
“Right,” Pan said. “Then I go panther and scope out each block for you and Emma to follow if it’s safe. Tedious and time-consuming, but you’ve avoided detection up until now. Wouldn’t want to ruin it by being rash.”
“Which is why we parked this far away. I get it,” Emma said. “Won’t the good folk of Matinsfield notice a big black panther trotting around town?”
Gabriel’s heart gave a little jolt of pride. Maybe she hated him for what he’d admitted about Ryder, but she was by his side even so. “His specialty is blending with shadows. It’s only a problem if he trots down the middle of the street.”
Pan continued, “Once I get to the B-and-B, I go inside and get an audience with the Enforcer. As Gabriel’s familiar, I’m the most logical person to plea-bargain for his and Sophia’s release. Assuming he doesn’t know you’ve escaped.”
“This is the change,” Gabriel said. “Instead of finessing him out of the parlor immediately, you’ll show him the B-and-B plans and get the location of the portal.”
“Which will probably be the parlor,” Emma said. “Where we were.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said. “But let’s be prepared for it to be any of the public spaces on the first floor. The parlor or the dining room or kitchen.”
“Once we determine where,” Pan said, “we continue with the original plan, which is that your aunt and I find a pretense to chase the Enforcer back to his room.”
“Ha. All Auntie has to do is start in on him for not being married. I guarantee that will work—from experience.”
Pan grinned. “I activate this block-door talisman and presto, he’s locked inside his room, giving you time to activate the key and free Sophia.”
“We’ve got it.” Gabriel’s blood itched to get going, same as the old days before he’d learned to hide his talents. He took a deliberate breath to center himself. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Mr. Kibbles trotted off.
Pan shimmered into his panther form, sleek black fur blending with the lengthening shadows of dusk, intelligent head swiveling for a last scan, golden eyes alert. He glided off, disappearing around the corner from Main onto First.
Gabriel took Emma’s hand and led her toward the intersection.
“What if he didn’t jail her in the parlor?” she whispered.
“Anywhere on the first floor will work. If not there, we improvise. But first floor makes the most sense.” He stopped at the corner, in the shadows of a church, and edged his head around for a look.
The panther had reached the alley. Checking over his sinewy black shoulder, he waved his tail in an “all clear” and headed off into the alley behind the FreshFresh submarine sandwich store. Or actually FreshFresh West. Matinsfield had three of the stores, one for every thousand inhabitants. Small town priorities. Houses, churches, bars, and FreshFreshs.
Re-clasping Emma’s hand, Gabriel followed. Small and soft, her hand shouldn’t have comforted him so much, but simply knowing she was here, with him, with her true, brave heart, encouraged him. Stoked him. Pausing at the corner of the FreshFresh, he waited for Pan’s next signal.
“It’s not like we had a whole lot of options,” he murmured. “Aside from the block-door charm, Pan has healing potions and a few fighting talismans. Unless we want to waste hours digging through Auntie’s stock on the off-chance she has something better, we’re stuck using the block. Locking the Enforcer in his room is our only choice.”
All clear.
Gabriel tiptoed with Emma along the alley to Second Street. The B-and-B was around the corner, half a block north, across the street. He moved into the shadows of a garage backing a big two-story two-family house, Emma beside him, and waited.
At the corner of Second and Pine, Pan shimmered into his man form and strode into the B-and-B.
Mere moments later, he exited.
Too soon. Gabriel’s heart began to pound painfully hard. Pan barely had time to find the Enforcer, much less question him. Was Ryder no longer in residence? He waited impatiently for the panther familiar to join them.
“Well, I’ve got good news, bad news, and worse news,” Pan murmured. “The good news is, that was almost too easy. The bad news is your aunt and Mr. Kibbles are missing.”
“We’ll find them later. Give me the rest.”
“The worse news is…” He showed Gabriel his phone, the line drawings of the B-and-B’s first and second floors side by side. He pointed to a room on the second floor. “Sophia’s portal is there.”
“A guest room?” Gabriel frowned. “Are you sure?”
Pan shrugged. “That’s where he looked. Maybe he invited her upstairs for privacy, and the room was empty.” Then the familiar frowned. “Or maybe he knew when he arrived that he was going to jail her and invited her to his room. If it is, he’s probably warded it. Maybe even trapped it. Did you want to delay…?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then you’ll need to be careful.”
Careful, though his flesh and very blood itched for action. Gabriel only said, “I’ll be as careful as I can. Change of plans. You distract the Enforcer. I’ll sneak past him and up to the room.”
“The block-door talisman only works to keep folks in, not out,” Pan warned.
“I’ll have to try to barricade myself inside. Improvise.” Like the old days. His mind felt alert, ready. His whole body felt alive. He was excited.
His sister’s life was at stake, and he was excited? Shame swamped him. He pinched the bridge of his nose, lifting his glasses.
It was Emma who said, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
Pan glided off.
Gabriel released his nose. “Emma, you’d better stay here.”
Her small hand wormed its way into his. “No.”
He stared down at her in fond exasperation. “What happened to ‘I’m fine’?”
“You, going alone into the Enforcer’s den? I am not fine.” She glared up at him, her emerald eyes glowing.
He chuffed a laugh, half-consternation, half-delight. She was a lifetime’s full of keeping him on his toes. He brightened at the prospect.
Then he dimmed. She still hadn’t said how she felt, knowing he was responsible for his parents’ death. She was with him now and thank goodness, but afterward, freed from the mating bond…she might walk away.
His whole body chilled.
No. She was with him now. If he kept her by his side with this, and then found another excuse, and another, and another…if he kept her with him via a string of excuses for the rest of his life, he might eventually be able to wear her objections down.
To make her his. His to love. His to keep safe. Well, there was her berserker talent, but he didn’t want to rely on that.
Best for her to stay here. He’d begin his excuses after.
He opened his mouth to frame his refusal and drew breath.
“Nope,” she said.
“But I haven’t said—”
“Crispy-creme nope. Fried nope with syrup. Coffee and burnt nope. Every way I can think of to say no, not, never leaving me behind.”
His spirits rose again, higher than before. That was his brave, brilliant Emma. He shook his head fondly. “All right.”
“Nope with bacon bits. Poached nope on toast…wait, what?”
“You’re probably safer with me anyway. Come on.”
That, to his amusement, left her speechless. He tugged her into motion to the corner of the B-and-B, where Pan waited. When they got to Pine, he signaled his familiar inside.
After a few moments she whispered, “How will you know when he’s distracted the Enforcer—?”
“I am not interested in Dance Dance Revolution!” Ryder’s high-pitched squeal interrupted her.
She gave him a rueful grin. “Oh.”
If he’d been the old Gabriel, the adrenaline pumping through his system would be exhilarating. In the old days before he’d toned down his flamboyancy, this would even have been fun. Even now he’d felt the echo of
it.
But with Emma beside him, the danger was starkly real. He could not afford to get caught.
Heart pumping, hand tightly clasping hers, he crept inside.
Aunt Linda and Mr. Kibbles were nowhere to be seen, as Pan had said. But Ryder stood, profile to them, beside the piano, staring with disgust at Pan who sat on the bench pounding out “Heart and Soul”.
“Come on, Ryder. Play with me!” Pan glanced up and saw them—and immediately his gold eyes went wide. Ryder would see them if his attention wavered from the keyboard.
“No fucking way. What is wrong with you—?”
“Tango!” Pan leaped to his feet, bench crashing back, to grab the Enforcer and spin him into a dance hold, an imaginary rose gritted between his teeth. “And-a one-two-three-four-and—”
“Let me go.” Ryder tried to pull away, nearly tearing free to spin toward where Gabriel and Emma crouched.
“Close embrace!” Pan snugged him up tight, yanking so hard Gabriel heard the whump of their chests meeting and winced.
“You’re insane.” The Enforcer’s bleat was nearly soprano.
“I’m insane—for da-ance,” Pan sang. “Boleo!” He swept the Enforcer into a diagonal, away from where Gabriel waited with a pounding heart, the familiar changing direction so fast Ryder’s trailing leg kicked up into the air.
Gabriel tugged on Emma’s hand and pulled her into motion.
They crept across the floor.
Just as the Enforcer tore away from Pan’s grip.
Gabriel sucked in his breath. They were in plain sight. Ryder was certain to see them.
“And spin. And dip!” Pan grabbed Ryder’s hand and yanked him into a twirl, ending by shoving the Enforcer backward over one arm.
“Fuck!” Falling, Ryder arched over Pan’s arm like a ballerina. “You’re totally psycho.”
Gabriel and Emma sneaked behind the blustering Enforcer to the staircase. Every nerve tight as a Bugatti’s timing, he tiptoed up, Emma padding silently behind him, wolf-style.
“Enough.”
From behind him, Gabriel felt the surge of magic, a repel spell. He glanced down in time to see Ryder push Pan away, into the fireplace. Again the Enforcer started to turn almost intuitively toward them.
“And foot play,” Pan yelled, shoving off the mantelpiece to grab Ryder and run a tickling foot up Ryder’s leg, throwing a furious hurry-the-hell-up glance at Gabriel as he did and losing track of his foot play, rising too fast, too high, and a lot too hard, ending with toes in testicles.
Ryder, with a sick woof, clasped his crotch and fell to his knees.
Pan glared a shoo.
Gabriel didn’t need the suggestion. He pulled Emma to the top of the landing and out of the Enforcer’s sight.
The bedroom with Sophia’s jail was second on the right. Gabriel sneaked down the hall, third eye wide, to open the door onto a room in keeping with the style of the parlor, big high bed with thick colorful comforter, heavy pieces of wood furniture lacquered to a high gloss and a smattering of plaster busts and figurines in romantically suggestive poses.
At least, they were suggestive to him. He nearly lost his concentration, realized at the last moment he’d seen the glint of a magical tripwire, and froze. Emma plowed into his back.
Pushed forward, he shot a quick “release” at the wire with a whisper of power. He landed shoulders tense, listening hard.
“Let me go, you insane panther!”
Grabbing Emma’s hand, he pulled her into the room. As Emma shut and locked the door, his attention was snagged by a pair of nudes entwined in what he recognized as a copy of Rodin’s “The Kiss”. The man’s hand on the woman’s naked flank, her legs over his, her arm behind his neck as he bent his head to hers…oh yeah, it gave him all kinds of ideas.
Focus on the job at hand. He shook off any thoughts of sweetly curved naked flanks and scanned the room for more tricks and traps. A few ambush spells sparkled on a suitcase and the dresser, but the middle of the room was clear. “All right. Once I activate the partial key, we have a few seconds before the Enforcer charges up here and tries to jail us.”
“How many of those jail things does he carry, anyway? Can we count them like bullets?”
He paused in the midst of all his worry and adrenaline to simply smile at her, his emerald-eyed ray of sunshine. “I love how you’re always thinking. We can’t be sure how many jail talismans he has, so we have to prepare for the worst—one more than we think. It won’t take him long to get past the physical lock and get inside. When he does, I’ll counter whatever he throws while you yell for Sophia.”
“Earning you more go-to-jail, do-not-pass-go points? I don’t think so. Sophia will recognize your voice, not mine. You yell, I’ll wallop the Enforcer. It doesn’t take magic to fight.”
She’d seen with ease through his attempt to shield her. Stars above, she was a marvel. “I don’t want him pinning more detention points on you either.”
“No worries. Since the Enforcer doesn’t fight fair, I don’t have to either. I’ll stand behind the door to hit him. He won’t even see me. Here.” With only a slight hesitation, she offered him her journal. He’d given it back to her in case she changed her mind.
She hadn’t.
He ran through the probabilities quickly, decided that her suggestion not only protected her best, it had the best chance for a positive outcome. “Have I said lately how perfect you are?”
“Not perfect.” Her cheeks pinked. His gaze riveted to the rosy flesh, momentarily wondering if her lips below would turn that exact shade as he kissed them.
Awkwardly, she said, “But thanks.” She picked up a nearby plaster bust and glided behind the door.
He clenched his eyes, willing his engorged cock down and having a helluva hard time doing it.
Free Sophia first. Then figure out a way to make love to Emma through the next Ice Age.
He reached for every drop of his limited power, visualizing it in the way he’d been taught, as the air in his lungs, the water in his cells, the crust of earth beneath his feet, and the fire of the planet’s molten core. His power usually came to him as a mighty ocean, but he wasn’t surprised when all he felt was a gentle lapping at the shoreline of his self. The limiter’s doing.
It was enough for the nudge he planned.
With the ease of long practice, he kept his physical eyelids cracked while opening his third eye. First thing he saw was the thin thread of Sophia’s mate connection with Noah.
Bad, bad, bad. The once-transparent line was frosted slightly, like corneal clouding. Gabriel’s own breath iced. Even without Ryder’s murderous plans, time was running out.
As a wizard prince, Gabriel had access to multiple elements, and he’d already decided a doorway would respond best to earth magic. Drawing deep, he pulled up power from the earth through his feet, through his body, into his hands, the journal sandwiched between them.
Focused on the end of Sophia’s mating lifeline on the etheric, he aimed his whisper of power at the journal.
The wolf medallion began to glow a soft gold, and the book itself warmed.
But that was all.
He pulled on a little more power and commanded, “Open.”
And…nothing.
“What’s happening?” Emma whispered.
“I don’t know. I pulsed, but it didn’t work. Get ready for company.”
Sure enough, pounding feet came running, Ryder’s heavy tread followed by Pan’s lighter surefooted pad.
The doorknob clacked, turning behind them, but the locked door stayed shut. “What’s going on in there?” Ryder yelled.
“Hey, Enforcer,” Pan said. “Ever polka?”
“Get away from me!”
“A-one-two-hop! One-two—”
“Enough.” A loud pop was followed by the whump of a body hitting the carpeted hallway.
Fuck. Gabriel had to work hard to shove away the cold snarl of fear for his familiar. Finish this now.
Th
e slap of a talisman against the door and surge of power on the etheric made Gabriel shove everything the limiter allowed through the partial key.
“Open.”
Nothing.
Fear chomped his middle with icicles for teeth.
He abandoned subtlety and drew his wand, pointing it at the leather-bound book. Pulling every particle of power he could find in any element, air, water, fire, earth, he drilled magic into the key. “Damn it, I said open!”
Bang. But not on the etheric. A physical explosion splintered the door out of its frame.
Ryder stood in the doorway, wand pointed at the now-disintegrated door, eyes wide on Gabriel.
“What the fuck? Light?” The Enforcer’s wand came up, aimed directly at Gabriel. As Gabriel strained to ignite the partial key with every bit of magic he could channel, Ryder screamed, “Power off.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The ankle limiter cut in like a circuit breaker. The abrupt interruption of Gabriel’s power draw was the psychic equivalent of being on the wrong end of a breaking industrial rubber band. His third eye flared with fire, pain lashing into his brain and cutting his insides like machetes.
Standing in the doorway, eyes bulging, Ryder’s thin chest heaved like a bellows under his black leather jacket. “I didn’t believe it but… How the hell are you out of jail?”
“Fuck that,” the cricket chirped. “Where’s your traitorous she-bitch? Where’s Singer?”
Reeling with pain, Gabriel was horrified the key hadn’t worked. He was terrified his sister’s mating bond looked so near death.
But he was nearly cut off at the knees thinking Ryder might detect Emma, who was hugging the wall beside him.
Training saved Gabriel. Clamping automatically down on his pain and shock, he diverted every ounce of control to think.
Okay, snare the Enforcer’s attention. Keep it solely on him. Off of Emma, plaster bust raised to crash over Ryder’s head the moment he stepped into the room.
“Ryder Shootingstar.” Blocking pain, calling up his old flamboyance, Gabriel managed a credible cocky grin. “You thought your piddling magic could keep me corralled? As big a lie as your naming Emma as traitor.”