Where Gareth’s features were striking and defined, hers were delicately curved and rounder. But the piercing crystalline blue eyes with the darker cobalt-colored ring that bounced around them were the giveaway—the familial distinction. I knew from a conversation he’d had with her while I was in the room that she was about ten years older than him, but I couldn’t see the age difference. One of the benefits of being a shifter—they didn’t seem to age as others did.
This was Gareth’s sister, Charlotte, and she was just as distracted as I was by the people moving about, the chaos, and the constant blast of codes over the intercom. She stood frozen, unable to respond as tears rolled down her face. Gareth’s thumb swept across her cheek wiping them away. They kept coming, and eventually he just stopped trying. I didn’t know what to do, so I watched him as he tried to comfort her. Eventually, they took a seat next to each other, his hands on her thigh, patting soothingly. He waved me over, and I hesitated, feeling like I was an intruder on their moment. It had to be invasive to have me there as she tried to deal with the tragedy. Well, it wasn’t a tragedy yet. They just needed to stop whatever was happening to the shot supernaturals.
We had been there two hours, and I was afraid to ask questions. I’d heard too many codes, watched too many nurses run to the different rooms, and seen too many doctors walking past us with their faces twisted into a mélange of confusion, anger, and frustration. Gareth was so preoccupied with comforting his sister he didn’t seem to be concerned that the FSR wasn’t anywhere to be found. Another hour passed with nothing different, and eventually Victor, the first agent who’d interrogated me after the incident with the Magic Council, slowly approached me.
“Ms. Michaels,” he said in a flat, pensive voice. He frowned. “Can we speak with you for a moment?”
I nodded and came to my feet, and Gareth did moments later and started to follow them as well. Victor stopped, addressing him. “We just need to speak with Ms. Michaels.”
“If it has anything to do with the situation, I want to be involved.”
“We only need to speak with Ms.—”
“If it involves anything that happened today, then I need to be in on this. Not only does it involve my nephew, it also concerns the people that I want to protect. So I will be on this,” he said firmly.
I figured if this wasn’t so urgent there would be a battle for dominance and everyone would be tossing around their credentials and badges, but no one had the time for it. We followed him down the hall, and as we walked past one of the desks, a physician joined us. We were escorted into a private office and then the physician closed the door and directed us to take seats. I sat down first; Gareth took a chair next to me, and Victor and the agent with him took up a position opposite us against the wall. Everyone directed their attention to the physician, who I assumed was a mage. “Whatever was injected into them is in their system and eating away at their magic almost like it’s a cancer. Once all magic is gone, they will die. I have no idea what this is, and it keeps mutating so we can’t find anything to cure it.”
“How fast is it changing?” I asked.
“Rapidly, at least four times since I’ve tried to find something.”
“What if you try magically?” Gareth’s voice was strained. This was an exceptional situation. Shapeshifters didn’t respond the same way to magic as others did, and I’d never considered that restricting their ability to change would do the same as restricting magic—or rather removing magic—that was so entwined in each of us it was the very essence of our being. Removing a person’s magic killed them. I kept trying to listen to the physician speak, but my mind kept drifting off to who would have the resources to do something like this.
“This is where you come into play. Your magic is different, and we wonder if you can actually help.” He hesitated, and I didn’t blame him. Blood was quite powerful and asking someone to give it so freely was a very intrusive thing to do. They had to be desperate. My being out was definitely a thing—people at the Isles knew what I was, as did the FSR, the Supernatural Guild, Gordon Lands, some members of Humans First, and the new extremist group of the month that stemmed from the latter. And those extremists who didn’t know certainly would after their member told them that I almost erased his mind and plucked out his memories. I was pretty sure there weren’t too many people who could do that. My old life was so over.
The doctor hadn’t officially asked for my blood, and when he did, all eyes went to me. Relief fell over all their faces when I agreed, but it took longer than I wished. It should have been immediate, but I’d thought of the Mors and that my blood was what allowed it to track me down. But I had to do this.
Gareth rested against the wall, his arms crossed. He gave me a sympathetic smile. I had to put my trust in people who for years had believed my kind was extinct. Gareth held my gaze as they inserted the needle, and I wondered if he knew what I was thinking. Did he sense my anxiety? I ushered a wry smile onto my face. Focusing on Gareth was better than watching the doctor, who’d decided to draw my blood instead of having a nurse do it. Hiding his look of intrigue and disgust seemed too much of an effort for him to bother trying.
Ignoring the three other people in lab coats, gawking as though they’d found a unicorn doing the flamenco in the park, wasn’t helping either. So, I focused on Gareth and the crapstorm of things that were happening. We had another formidable radical group that was organized, strategic, and had resources. While the other groups were blathering about their tenets, annoying people with their brand of crazy and proving to be more bark than bite, the new one moved in silence. Who would have thought they would have struck so efficiently? How long had they been working on their virus?
Once the doctor had drawn my blood, he looked at it in the vial hopefully. He gave it to another man in a blue coat who seemed to have melted into the background so much that I hadn’t noticed him until he moved into my line of sight.
Gareth and I stepped out into the waiting area, and when he pressed his hand to the small of my back, I stopped walking. Giving me an appraising look and a half-smile, he nodded before mouthing a thank-you. I guess he understood my concern, but I didn’t really see it as a sacrifice as it might save so many people—it was an obligation. And yet we knew nothing about those doctors I’d just handed a vial of my blood to. I blocked out the worry; it wasn’t going to help or change anything. I wasn’t going to deny people a potential antidote on a possibility of a threat.
It was good to see Savannah’s smiling face when we entered the sitting area. I wasn’t surprised to see Lucas next to her.
“Where were you?” she asked, coming to her feet and giving me a hug. Before I could answer, she directed her attention to Gareth. “You should probably go check in on your sister, she doesn’t seem to be doing too well.” In response to his inquiring look, she said, “I went in to check on Avery and she was in there.”
Gareth nodded his head and left. As soon as he did I explained everything to her, including offering my blood as a possible option for curing everyone. She sucked in a ragged breath and held it for a long time before exhaling. “So everyone knows now?” she said in a strained voice.
“I don’t think there’s a way to hide it. Too many things have happened.” I tried to keep my voice level and the expression on my face neutral, but I’d known Savannah too long for that to actually work.
“Well, whoever did this hasn’t done themselves any favors. They’re now not only targeted by us but by humans as well.” It bothered me how fast she’d identified with her nascent abilities and assimilated herself into the supernatural world, no longer identifying herself as human. I wanted her to be human, but no matter how little magical ability she possessed, she wasn’t just human.
Two hours later Victor and the doctor returned to me. The pensive look on the latter’s face was more than enough of an answer.
“I didn’t work,” I said.
He just shook his head. The hopelessness of the doctor drove it home.
The injured were going to die. Dammit.
“I really thought it was. It started to For several minutes it seemed to be working, changing with the mutations and stabilizing them. We thought it would reverse them. It started to show signs of it, but then everything stopped. It did keep the virus stable, so the patients won’t get any worse. As long as they have some magic, they won’t die.”
“But they won’t be the same?”
The doctor shook his head.
“It did work. You said it started to reverse the process and stopped. The antiviral just needs to be stronger, right?” Savannah theorized.
“Technically, yes.”
“It just needs to be stronger, right?” she repeated, her eyes brightening, the way they had when she’d suggested I use her during magic. She wasn’t magical, but she could give a magical boost.
“If you had access to an ignesco that would help.”
They gave her blank looks. So few people knew what that was because it was rare. And when she explained it, the doctor looked as though she was a child and was telling him one of her tales about the time she met a dragon and rode it to Neverland or something equally fantastical.
“Well, sure, if we had a magical ‘booster,’ I’m sure that could work.” His tone was heavy with condescension.
Savannah’s eyes narrowed on him, and I watched her throat bob as she swallowed what she wanted to say, which probably wasn’t pleasant. “I’m going to ignore that tone and offer my assistance. I am one.”
The doctor looked at Victor and shrugged. “I can’t imagine she would make something like that up. Thank you,” the doctor said. “Please … please follow me.”
We were escorted to the same room where they’d drawn the blood, and we waited. And waited. And waited for someone to come. We’d been in the room for nearly an hour.
“How much you want to bet they are Googling the crap out of ignesco and calling every supernatural expert they know?”
“Definitely,” she said, but for some reason it didn’t bother her. Her optimism was contagious, and I really hoped she was the answer.
Humility wasn’t a good look on Dr. Condescension at all, and he wore it poorly over his features. “Savannah, if your offer still stands we would very much like to use you and Levy. Mr. Reynolds confirmed that your skills have been invaluable in the past.”
I would love to say that Savannah didn’t have the smuggest of all smug looks on her face, but that would be a lie. If she had an “I told you so” or “in your face” dance, she definitely would have been doing it. There was a special dignity to her as she slipped into the chair they used to draw blood and extended her arm, exposing her vein to them.
Everything came to a halt and we waited. Silence could be a good thing or it could mean that there was nothing else to do. Gareth was still in the room with his sister, so it was just Lucas, Savannah, and me waiting in the room they had allowed us to stay in. The Isles was quickly filling with family members and friends. My stomach knotted when I realized that we didn’t know what would be boosted, the Legacy blood or the virus.
I found comfort in that fact that I didn’t hear mourning. That was something, and I clung to it for all it was worth. When Dr. Condescension stepped in, beaming, his eyes went straight to Savannah. “Thank you!” Then his eyes slipped in my direction. “Thank you both.”
Savannah and I were out. This wasn’t going to go unnoticed.
We made our way to the room where Avery was and found him sleeping in his bed next to his mother with his arm wrapped around her. Sweat had matted his hair to his face, and I could see how he got away with so much. He looked innocent and nothing like the car-stealing miscreant who gained a special pleasure from irritating his uncle.
“He wore himself out. He’s changed three times since the treatment. I guess he needed to make sure.”
Savannah and I both sighed, heavily. We didn’t have any reason not to believe the doctor, but for some strange reason, we needed to see it.
CHAPTER 18
“It’s not a vacation, it’s work,” I groused, tossing out the dresses and swimsuit that she had placed in my suitcase.
“You won’t be working the whole time. Legacy searching by day, fun and naughty times by night.”
I reminded myself how much I loved Savannah, although she was more annoying than adorable at that moment.
“And these.” She pulled out two of my bras that didn’t have all the wire, padding, and lace that hers had but did what they were supposed to, which was hold up my tatas well.
“It’s work, Savannah.”
She plopped on the bed as I continued to pack, peeking up at me every so often. She’d settled quite nicely into her role as the quiet hero and I think was perfectly fine with the Isles and its staff taking full credit for curing everyone four days ago. We both seemed content with just the smug look of indignation she’d given the doctor before we left. Fading into obscurity seemed like a good plan, although we weren’t ever going to be unknown. For now we weren’t the face of the Legacy and some weird magic that no one had heard of.
“I wish I could take the time off to go with you two.”
I simply smiled and gave her a look. But it saved me from telling her she couldn’t go. I wasn’t too keen on Gareth going, but he’d be easy to reason with, as opposed to my enthusiastic roommate who was always ready to grab her “quest” bag and go on an adventure.
“Me, too,” I offered with very little enthusiasm. “I’ll miss the quest bag,” I teased, closing my suitcase before she could try to add anything else. Gareth rang the doorbell just as I was heading out of my bedroom.
Savannah answered the door, and he greeted her with two bottles of the same wine he’d brought to dinner earlier. “A gift from my sister. Just expect a lot of them for a while.”
Taking the bottles, Savannah said, “Tell her she doesn’t have to do this. I’m glad we were able to help and things worked out.”
He flashed her a half-grin. “Good luck trying to get her to stop. Avery’s grateful, too. When he’s not milking convalescence for all it’s worth, he’s been in animal form.”
“Have you found out anything else about who is responsible?”
He shook his head. “No, the men responsible for the shootings didn’t offer anything. Even when we used fae magic to coerce truth out of them, we only got the location of a building where they were given the virus and the weapons. It was just a warehouse. We’ve questioned the owner of it, and he doesn’t know anything. Whoever is behind that is very strategic. The shooters are martyrs for a cause who don’t have enough information to lead us to anyone else. They aren’t linked to the Human Rights Alliance,” he said, frowning.
Should we wait on looking for the Legacy?” I didn’t want to put it off, but I wanted to find the people responsible for the mass attack more than I wanted to find my kin.
He shook his head. “No, we are only going for three days. Let’s do this. I’m confident they can handle it.”
“Have fun,” Savannah offered, waving at us from the door.
Gareth smirked, giving me a salacious look before glancing back over his shoulder. “We will.”
“It’s work,” I reminded him, giving him a nudge with my elbow.
“Of course, it’s work where I am the lead and you are my subordinate. I guarantee, I’m going to have a lot of fun.” His teeth gripped his lip, fighting the wolfish grin that was threatening to emerge.
“We’ll see,” I challenged, getting into the car, my eyes narrowed on him.
But the haughty look of mischief remained, tugging at my defiant nature. “I can ask for another handler,” I offered.
Chuckling, he pulled the car away from the curb. “Yet, you won’t.”
This guy.
Gareth split his attention between me and looking down the road. Once we were several blocks from the house, he leaned forward and his eyes narrowed, studying the images in the rearview mirror. He stopped the car abruptly and turned arou
nd, speeding back to the apartment. It wasn’t until we were closer to the apartment building that I saw a van pulling away and the door to my apartment wide open. He increased his speed, closing the distance between our car and the van. A hand slipped out the window of the van. When it waved, swirls of color raged through the air, and our car swerved out of control. Gareth pumped the brakes but couldn’t stop, going over the curb and hitting a tree. We both got out of the car and ran through the grass, hoping to cut the van off in its oncoming direction. Gareth gave chase and midstride he shifted into that massive cat and pounded down the street. I moved between the neighboring apartment buildings and houses and hopped over gates until I got to the street. I saw Gareth gaining on them, too far away for me to run. The distance between Gareth and the van was now just a few feet when it braked and turned at a speed that I hoped would tip it over; it didn’t. Instead, it swiped into Gareth, knocking him several feet away. The van did a full circle and sped away.
Gareth was in human form by the time I reached him, a frown deeply embedded on his confused face. He shook his head.
I closed my eyes for a moment, and all I saw was the broken door. Gareth still seemed disconcerted.
“Did you get a look at them?”
He nodded, slowly. “It was Conner.”
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Renegade Magic (Legacy Series Book 3) Page 22