Alphas Unleashed

by S. E. Smith

  Chapter 6

  Palla parked in the driveway she pointed to. She lived in a rotten neighborhood. His oath to her, sealed by her blood, shivered through him. He hadn’t been blood sworn since before he’d been taken mageheld. He didn’t like it, he never had the few times such an oath had seemed politic. Now wasn’t any different.

  Her house wasn’t secure. Not one single ward was set to warn off potential attackers—which meant no demonkind watching out for her. Why not? Why hadn’t any of Nikodemus’s people come to take a look? To his left, a chainlink fence surrounded a yard that was dirt and weeds. There was a window-box, though, with some blooming plant in it. White and pink whatever it was.

  “This is your house?”

  “No. I live two streets over. I just want the drug dealers here to shoot you.” She pushed open the car door and got out before he had time to turn off the engine. He did that quick and jumped out. She wasn’t safe here, no witch would be, with no magic in place to protect her house. She stared at him over the top of the car. “If you ask me if it’s safe to park your fancy car here, drop dead.”

  He patted the roof. “I’m sure your drug dealer neighbors will take good care of it.”

  “They’re not drug dealers.”

  He made sure his expression didn’t change. “Aren’t you all drug dealers here?”

  “Go away.”

  “You’re the one who brought up drug dealers, not me.”

  “How long has your irony detector been broken?”

  “Couple hundred years at least.” Fine with him if he ended up waiting outside. He could set some wards and get the place at least minimally secure. “I’m happy to wait here and protect my car while you pack your things.”

  “Pack my things. What for?”

  That gave him a jolt. “Did you mean what you said, or was that all hot air and I have to find out if Nikodemus can break my bond to you?”

  “It would be your fault if it was.”

  She just did not take shit from him, and it was both annoying and a sign that he’d made the right decision about her. A light went on in the house next door.

  After a look over her shoulder, she sighed. “Come inside so we can get clear without everyone listening to my business.”

  He followed her in. For a house that wasn’t very big and could have used an exterior paint job, it was not a broken down dump. Her landlord wasn’t a deadbeat. The inside was in good shape, and the floors were high-quality hardwood. While she put down her purse and locked the door, he made a quick ward. Enough to give an intruder pause.

  “Have a seat.” She pointed to a blue sofa. “Can I get you something to drink? I have water and cheap beer.”

  “Jesus, this is a girly place.”

  “I am a girl, in case you didn’t notice. Beer or water?”

  “Nothing.” There were framed prints on the wall, and everywhere he looked there was some picture, statuette, or object to provide a splash of color. Lots of pink and yellow and green. Bright colors.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “Sure.”

  The minute she left, he went to each of the widows and set some wards. There wasn’t time to do a proper job, but it was enough to provide warning if magehelds tried to get in. He wouldn’t know they were here until it was too late, so he needed something in place that would slow them down. If it came to that.

  By the time she returned, he was slouched on a chair that was actually comfortable. He’d thrown the green-and-orange pillows on the couch. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” She changed to old jeans, bright yellow socks, and a white tee-shirt. The package was nice. Totally a good look for her. She sat on the couch and pulled a girly pink pillow onto her lap. “I meant what I said about helping.”

  “I meant what I said about you quitting your job.” He pushed up straight.

  She gave him a deep look—you just didn’t fuck with a woman who could look at you like that—the look that had likely been the one to send Randi over the edge. That look said, you have no idea who you’re dealing with.

  He held up his hands, palms out. “But first, thank you.”

  “For what?”

  The words weren’t as hard to give up as he’d thought, and once he’d said them, he realized how much he needed her to know he meant it. “You have no reason to help me. I know that. So, I thank you for that.” He leaned forward, forearms on his thighs. He needed this to work, and when he locked gazes with her, he did his best to modulate his words so he didn’t sound pissed off or impatient. “Now you have to commit.”

  “You seem to be under the impression that I don’t understand it’s dangerous. That I won’t take this seriously.”

  “My guess is you don’t.”

  She was calm again, and that made him wary. “You’re talking about going into the home of a powerful witch and taking something from her that she doesn’t want to give up. Right?”

  He gave a curt nod.

  “She has magehelds to keep things like that from happening.”

  “She does.”

  “Then let’s agree that I might not know the details, but that I get that it won’t be easy or safe.”

  “With all Nikodemus had to deal with just to keep all out war from erupting, I can’t take a team with me to do this. Failure isn’t an option, you understand? I can’t do it alone. I need someone who can get the talisman out of there if something happens to me.”

  She studied him. “You think you aren’t coming back, don’t you?” She leaned forward. “That is not an option.”

  His chest clenched. “How about we agree we do this right or not at all.”

  “All right.” She drew a long, slow breath. “Let’s agree to that.”

  “See? We have common ground.” He relaxed for the first time in hours. He had the necessary. She wasn’t a quitter. Hadn’t he watched her work harder than anyone with no payoff? Hadn’t he spent weeks watching her settle people down without them knowing what she was doing? What she could do would mean the difference between him going to Jeanne’s to die and them getting out alive and with the talisman.

  She made a face at him. “I said I’d help you, not be your BFF.”

  “I don’t have any friends.”

  “I wonder why?”

  She was right. They weren’t going to be friends. Luckily, they didn’t need to be for this to work. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Call your boss and quit.”

  Chapter 7

  Wallace gave back his phone. “There.” Her hand shook, but there was nothing she could do about it. The center of her chest hollowed out, and panic rushed in to fill the void. Jesus H. Christ. She’d just quit her job, and she didn’t have a car to live in if Palla was fucking with her. “Happy?”

  “Delirious” He flipped the device around and made a call. “Let’s get this done, all right? I don’t need the attitude.”

  “I would like a little respect, please.”

  “C’est moi. Oui.” He was talking into his phone. Her language in high school and college had been Spanish. Obviously fluent, he spoke too fast for her to do more than guess at the conversation. While he was talking, he speared her with a look. “What’s your social?”

  He repeated the number she gave to him, but in French not English. There was more rapid conversation from him with a few silences punctuated by words like alors, oui or merde. “What’s your number?” He texted that to whoever he was talking to and there was more talk, and then he disconnected his call. “My guy in Geneva will text you his contact info. By tomorrow he’ll have everything taken care of.”

  Across the room, her cell phone beeped.

  “You have bill pay, right?”

  “Yes.” The back of her skull kept tingling and she finally, finally figured out that it had something to do with his magic. Whenever the flecks of color in his eyes showed up, she got that shiver of cold through her head and down her back.

  “Get him your account info, and he’ll make
sure your bills get paid while you’re busy with me. He’s not going to rip you off, but if he does, I’ll make it good. If I’m not around to do that, then tell Nikodemus, and he’ll make it good.” He tapped his phone some more. “That’s the number to call.”

  Her phone beeped again.

  “Let Maddy know you’re going to miss the next couple of Mondays. To be safe, a month.” He slid his phone into his pocket. “We need a week to ten days of practice, maybe a little longer, but I can’t see this going much past that. I’d fucking kill you.”

  She was having trouble getting her mind around all this. It didn’t seem real that Palla was in her home. A demon—why not Tau? Why not someone she could get along with? “I’m trying to remember why I agreed to help you.”

  He snorted, but then he got serious in a way she didn’t care for. “Angel, you always do the right thing.”

  Maybe this wasn’t happening. Maybe it was all a dream. “For all you know, I cheat and lie every day.”

  “Everybody lies and cheats.” He stretched out on the chair, long legs crossed at the ankles, fingers laced behind his head. Muscles bulged up and down his arms. “You. Me. Everyone. But I’ve never seen you lie or cheat about the things that matter. You work at a charity, for fuck’s sake.”

  “People steal from charities.”

  “Humans are shit, you know?”

  “Don’t you forget it.”

  In one smooth motion, he pulled his legs back and sat forward, forearms on his thighs. He was way too intense. “You’d never let someone suffer if you had the power to stop it.” For a nanosecond, his grief filled the room, and then he shut it off. “I don’t need in your head to know you don’t like me and that you’re afraid of me.”

  “I’m not afraid of you.” A lie, and he knew it, she could tell.

  “You should be afraid of me. You should dislike me. I don’t like humans, and I like the magekind even less. I don’t want to be nice to them, and I don’t want to be friends with any of you.”

  She pointed. “Door’s that way.”

  His eyes were a normal green, but she didn’t feel right. Nothing felt right. She expected him to transform into a monster any minute. He was too much, and she got this sense of him as foreign. Not of this world.

  His smirk disappeared. “I’ll say this once. Even without the oath, I’d let a mage take my heart if it meant keeping you alive.”

  “God, don’t even say something like that.”

  He glared at her, and she considered throwing the pillow at him.

  “Why’d you make that oath, if it wasn’t necessary?”

  “You wouldn’t have believed me otherwise.”

  She squeezed the pillow on her lap. “I would do it without the oath.”

  “This way, where I stand is fact with no need to debate. You humans debate everything to death, and then you don’t even get anything done.” He pushed to his feet, and she had this moment where all she could think was Palla is in my house. “Now, how about you pack your things?”

  “We’re going to Santa Cruz now?” Her heart lurched. He wasn’t kidding about this being dangerous, and there was no way she could do this. She wasn’t ready.

  “Santa Cruz isn’t safe territory for me. The less time I’m there upsetting the locals, the better. It’s not safe for you either. Someone might notice there’s something wrong with you, and that would fuck up everything.”

  “You either think I can do this, or you don’t. Which is it?” She huffed. “You better be sure you have the right person for this.”

  “There’s a reason Maddy had you working with her. There’s reason she wouldn’t let you quit when you were ready to.” He put a hand to the back of his head. “Street witch? No question of that. But you’re not like normal magekind either. It’s subtle, but it’s there, and it feels wrong. Jeanne is going to have a few magehelds strong enough to notice that kind of thing.” His delivery was pure business, and it brought home just how serious he was.

  “Jeanne? Is that the witch we’re going after?”

  “Are you ready yet?” He looked over his shoulder at the door. “I’m worried about my car.”

  He was trying to start something, and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. “Can’t we practice here?”

  “I don’t want to waste time making this house safe.”

  “Yeah, there’s a criminal at the door every five minutes.” She looked at her watch. “We’re overdue.”

  “If your neighbors see me around a lot, they’re going to be curious, and I don’t need a bunch of curious humans asking questions about your new boyfriend.”

  “That is disgusting.”

  “Why? Do they know you prefer girls?”

  “I like men just fine, thank you.”

  His smartass smirk faded. “Listen to me, Wallace. This is important. If there’s trouble because of me, your neighbors are at risk. Whether they think you go for girls or boys or both, they didn’t do anything to deserve what would happen to them if some mage or witch decides they want payback for something I did for Nikodemus.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t like this glimpse into his life, but she liked his blunt explanation even less.

  “My place is fully warded. No one gets in without me knowing about it first. If anyone normal sees you with me, they’ll think I’m still playing the field and you are the lucky girl of the week.”

  His casual words gave her even more unwelcome insight into his life. The days he wasn’t with Maddy he was immersed in a world at the edge of war, where his kind fought to stay free, and where people murdered the kin in order to extend their lives or increase their power. She drew up her knees and rested her chin on top.

  Everything Maddy had told them was true. There was magic. There were demons. She’d gotten too used to seeing the kin in their human forms. They looked normal. You could walk past them on the street and never know they weren’t normal people. Palla, standing there, looking all too human, wasn’t. She needed not to forget that.

  ”If it’s someone who knows what I am, they’ll think I’m boning one of Maddy’s street witches again.”

  “That’s even more disgusting.” She could feel heat in her face. “It better not have been Randi.”

  His gazed fixed on her, and it was not a comfortable feeling. “Not your business.”

  That meant it had been. She needed to learn to think before she spoke. “I’m sorry, that was out of line. You’re right, your bad taste in women is not my business.”

  “Even if we were a thing, I wouldn’t have her over while we’re working. I need you concentrating on what you can do, not looking over your shoulder at some second-rate witch.”

  “She’s not second-rate.”

  He shrugged. “She’s good, but not half as good as she thinks.”

  She gave him a long look, and he returned it in measure. Not human, she reminded herself. Not human at all. “You’d have to protect me from her, wouldn’t you?”

  “Pack, would you? If you run out of anything or need anything extra, we can get it for you later.”

  He gave her time to get rid of the food that would spoil while she was gone, and then they were back in his car and heading for the Bay Bridge and San Francisco.

  Chapter 8

  Palla lived on the top floor of an apartment building on Octavia Street in San Francisco. The lobby and elevator had all the charm the 1970s had ever managed. He was carrying her suitcase like it didn’t weigh anything when the sides were bulging because she’d shoved in everything she could think of.

  The hallway to his apartment was as depressing as the elevator. It made her feel better that his place cost a lot more than hers without being any less solidly no big deal. Besides, she lived in an actual house while he had to make do in an apartment.

  At the door, he touched a carved wooden medallion set above the frame. The back of her head tingled again. This reaction to him had set in right after his blood oath, and it was strange, her being able to tell when
he was drawing on his magic. They went in, and the lights slowly came on. She walked forward to get a better look. Her eyes adjusted, and she didn’t even care what he thought.

  His apartment opened to a room that overlooked the San Francisco Bay. She could see the lights of the Golden Gate Bridge to the left and the dark water of the bay in front of her. Behind her, she heard him set down his car fob.

  The colors of the living room were blue and sea green and bronze, and there were glowing bronze stars painted on the ceiling. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of doing something like that at her place. His furniture was a mix of Stickley and Mission. And there was art on the walls, real art, with colors that said, hell yes, this is color. You never saw red until right now this minute.

  “I want to live here.” The words went straight from her heart to her mouth.

  “You have two weeks. Three tops.” He moved past her. “Enjoy it while you’re here. Guest room’s this way.”

  “Can I live here?” He hesitated, then turned to look at her like he thought she was crazy. She shrugged. “You have a nice place.”

  “I don’t want a roommate.”

  The guy did not know she was teasing him. “How about if I cook for you?”

  He started walking again. He opened a door about halfway down the hall. “I have a service. They do everything.”

  “Accountant?”

  “Bathroom’s there.” Her suitcase looked cheap and battered in this room.

  “Look at this.” She turned in a circle. More stars were painted on the ceiling. She’d be able to lie in bed, maybe, and watch them. One of the walls was brilliant orange while the rest were linen white. The view was of Pacific Heights and the sweep downhill, which wasn’t as amazing as the living room, but still nice. She loved it. “Gofer? Car washer in chief?” She put her back to the window. “Window washer? Person in charge of thinking up insults you can use at a moment’s notice?”

  He faced her. “You need a filter.”

  Their ridiculous exchange had broken the ice. She wasn’t feeling quite as weird and unsettled and out of place, and he didn’t seem like quite so much of an asshole. “I like your place. It’s beautiful. I love everything about it.”