by Maya Daniels
“Yes, but your father …” Elijah trailed off when Crystal’s eyes went wide and she bit her bottom lip, shaking her head. “You haven’t told her?”
“No, not yet. Haven’t really had the opportunity yet.” Crystal planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes on Elijah. “Been a little busy, you know, trying not to die and attempting to disappear.”
“Tell me what?” I was tired of secrets, and even if this wasn’t one, it sounded like something I needed to know. Like yesterday.
After a long sigh, Crystal slumped on the coffee table, giving me her back when she curled in on herself and buried her face in her hands. I took that as a bad sign. “My father is the leader of the Mage’s Guild. And he’s been trying to find me forever.” The words were muffled through her fingers, but they screamed in my head.
I gaped at her like a fish out of water, and all the air rushed out of me in a single whoosh. A loud, thundering roar shot through the space before a chunk of the wall crumpled to the floor with a crash, the sound so loud it was as if a gun had just gone off.
My lungs shriveled as I fought to suck oxygen in.
After several long seconds of nothing but the rattling and tremors through the walls echoing around the room, I sucked in small breath, one I desperately needed so I didn’t faint. “You didn’t think this was a tidbit of important information that should have been passed along when we were speaking about your father hiring me to find you?”
Peering over her shoulder, she met my eyes with a sorrowful look. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see how the two things could’ve been connected until now.”
“But I told you the Guild might be after me,” I snarled at her through clenched teeth, trying hard to stave off the anger threatening to burst from me in uncontrolled waves.
Nodding, her shoulders slumped further when she ducked her head in shame, looking at the ground. “I know, but you had magic, and I had magic, so of course they were trying to get both of us.”
Silence descended around all of us.
“It’s too late for hindsight.” Elijah’s voice boomed in the quiet apartment, making me flinch. “We need to face forward. The Mage’s Guild never wanted Crystal. They don’t care about her now that they know about you, Brigit. She was a setup for you. I’m sure they’ve been watching you for years, your routine, habits. Everything. They picked something that would snag you, that you would never turn your back on: a woman in distress.”
I knew he was right the minute the words left his lips. It made perfect sense. Especially if they had, in fact, been keeping tabs on me. Heck, I stopped to help old women put groceries in their car if they were alone. It was just who I was. I was born as a dumbass.
There was just one thing I still didn’t understand. “Why me? What do they want with me?”
Elijah’s eyes flicked away from me, landing on what he must’ve thought was a very interesting piece of the broken ceiling in the corner of the room. “I’m not sure yet.”
He was lying.
I knew it as much as I knew we needed to get the hell out of that place or we would die before the mages got their nasty hands on any of us. The fact that he wouldn’t meet my eyes was another red flag, but add to it the pink hue that was taking over his cheeks … he was a lying son of a bitch.
Why would he lie?
He’d been a bit more forthcoming with information, at least since the mages attacked, so why risk losing the little bit of my trust he’d gained so far?
Elijah Hawthorne didn’t strike me as a stupid man. Far from it, actually. So if he was telling fibs about this, there must be a damn good reason. Though I was itching to question him and push him to tell me everything right then, I let it go. He would tell me when he was ready.
I hoped.
Or, I’d just beat it out of him after I survived the night.
“Okay, fine. Keep your damn secrets. Do you have any ideas on how to get out of this mess we’ve found ourselves in, or are we going to just sit here and let the building kill us all?” The question came through a steady, unshaken voice, which was far from what was happening inside me. My entire being trembled with fear, not because I might lose my life. No, it was worse than that. I was terrified that I had just put my trust in someone who would turn around and stab me in the back like almost every single person in my life had before.
Elijah’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree in the dark, twinkling with excitement and something else that I refused to name. “I do.”
“Care to share with the class?” I asked, wishing I didn’t have to probe him to give me answers all the time. It was getting more than annoying. Why did everything with this guy have to be like pulling teeth with my bare hands?
Elijah stood, walking to the doorway and glancing out. “There’s a ladder here that goes all the way down to the ground. Are there anymore like that on the opposite side of the building?” he peered at Crystal over his shoulder.
Crystal mumbled something none of us heard, rushing forward and opening the door. Truth be told, I didn’t hear any of it because there was white noise thundering in my ears. I was lost in thought, scared of what was to come, and pissed off that I had to deal with any of this to begin with.
Couldn’t I just turn the time back to that cursed night and bypass that whole alley situation to begin with? No. That wouldn’t have been something I’d ever do, not if someone with in trouble, but a girl could dream. I was all smack talk, but in the end, I was dumb enough to get my ass in trouble for anyone.
No matter what, I’d learned a really valuable lesson with this. Quite a few of them, really, but one stood out more than the rest.
I had a hero complex, and that shit needed to stop. In the future, I only wanted to think about saving myself. Even as that last thought crossed my mind, I knew I would never change. Selfishness did not become me if someone was in trouble, and even though I did little things for me, I would always do more for others. It was just the way of life.
Especially for a sucker like me.
16
Following Crystal through the crappy apartment complex quaking on its foundations around us wasn’t easy. The shifting of the building from the magical attacks had me blanching hard, and I found myself stumbling like I was drunk more often than not, grabbing the walls with frantic desperation to steady myself so I didn’t end up flat on my face.
We took a stairwell on the inside to cross over to the other side of the building, where we knocked on door after door, trying desperately to find a good Samaritan who would answer and let us in. Not hard right? Especially when I expected everyone to be running down screaming from all the ruckus the idiots downstairs were making. We were only a small group. A man too hot for his own good, and two frightened, innocent looking women. Okay, only one could pull off innocent, and then there was me, who looked like Hell spat her out and Heaven wouldn’t dare claim her.
Not that I gave two shits how I looked.
Finally, when an old woman cracked open her door wearing a bathrobe and slippers, curlers jutting from her hair in all different angles, I knew we’d just hopped on the lucky train. Until she slammed her door in our face with a scowl, scrunching up her wrinkly face.
Catching a break was getting harder by the damn second in this shithole.
Crystal Stopped mid-jog, and I slammed into her black almost toppling both of us to the ground like a couple of idiots. Righting herself, she mumbled, “Sorry. I just thought of something…”
“Please go on,” Elijah piped in, wisely standing far enough away from us so he didn’t become one of the dominos in our game.
“The mages are at the front entrance, right?” Pausing as if it wasn’t a rhetorical question and we were actually going to answer, which neither Elijah nor I had any intention of doing, she continued. “Well, there’s a back entrance, so if we take the service elevator, we can get there and get out without anyone noticing us.”
Biting the inside of my mouth, I tried very hard not to wrap my hands around h
er neck and strangle the life out of her. I couldn’t believe the words I’d just heard. “And for some reason you only just thought to tell us this?”
Shrugging, she grinned. “I’m super smart, but sometimes the cookies aren’t in the oven if you know what I mean.” I still wanted to throttle her.
The floor shook below my feet, and it felt like the magic was growing stronger each time, feeling like a small earthquake when it connected with the wards. “Lead the way.”
Down winding hallways we went, until we reached an elevator all the way in the back. Crystal dug a set of keys out of her bag, which I didn’t noticed her taking, turning one in the small panel on the outside of the mechanism to open the doors. Once inside, the unsteady contraption closed with a thud instead of a whoosh, and Elijah jabbed his crooked finger on the L button to take us to the lobby. Hopefully we wouldn’t come out anywhere near the main entrance or end up like pancakes if this stupid thing fell apart mid-descent. After Crystal’s last mishap, I had a hard time imagining her screwing up that bad, but it could happen.
A loud ding bounced through the small space before the doors opened with a teeth grinding clunk, and Crystal hightailed it out, skipping over the crack in the middle as if it might jinx her. Elijah and I followed behind her with him taking the back, our steps matching her speed so we could get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Hopefully, once the mages realized we were gone, they’d leave this place alone.
Speaking of which, “I’m guessing now would not be a good time to use magic, right?” I huffed, my voice breathless because of the overexertion from all the running. My muscles were seriously not happy with me at all after the last couple of days.
“No magic. Obviously they can track it. Probably not as good as me, but one can never know, and I’d rather not take any chances right now.” Elijah spoke from in front of me, not turning to even glance at my raised eyebrows.
I wanted to say something smart back to him, but I didn’t have it in me. Not at the moment. It was taking every bit of energy I had to pick my feet up, otherwise I would have been on that like white on rice. Times two, if I put in some effort.
Quiet surrounded us, and it was as heavy as an anvil around our necks, but eventually we reached a set of double doors. Hope that we would get out of this cursed place bloomed in my chest. Elijah grabbed Crystal by the back of the shirt, simultaneously placing a hand to my chest.
With a cocked eyebrow, I glanced at it before meeting his eyes, which were locked intently on mine. “Move the hand now, jerk. Before I break it.”
Chuckling under his breath, his famous smirk that seemed to be permanently etched on his face made my fingers itch to reach out and pummel him for no reason at all, apart from my perpetual horny state around him. Not the time to mess with my head … at all.
“Stay here, the both of you, and I’ll signal you from the door if the coast is clear.” Right before my very eyes, Elijah waved a hand in front of himself, and his whole appearance changed. So did his scent. If a spaceship dropped on top of my head at that moment, I would’ve been less stunned, and my mouth would not be hitting the floor the way it did.
What kind of magic lived inside of the guy? It would be nice as hell to just go from tall, dark, and dreamy to beach bum in the blink of an eye. Something he obviously didn’t find important to share, just like everything else about himself. And here I was feeling like an ass for not sharing my secrets.
“So, you think they are out back waiting for us?” The silence was unnerving, and even with the loud booms echoing here and there, I needed something else to distract me and keep my mind off the shit storm coming for us.
Crystal sniffed, rubbing the back of her hand over the tip of her nose as if scratching it so I didn’t notice she was struggling not to cry. “Yeah. Maybe not back here, but… I just think it doesn’t matter where we run. They will always find us. They had the means for this for a while. My dad just left me alone because he didn’t care. Not until he had a use for me again, obviously.” She waved a hand to indicate me and the reason why the mages attacked her when setting up a trap to get my dumb ass. “Story of my life, and the main reason why I ran from him. It’s all about power when it comes to my father.”
A pang of sadness stabbed me, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. It sucked when you had shitty parents, there was no debate there. But at least she had them, unlike some of us. Family of some sort that she could lean on. As far as I knew, I never had anyone but myself.
It took me some years, but I ended up liking the way things were for me. At least I knew I could always count on myself, plus, it made it a lot harder for people to screw me over. No one you cared about equaled no weakness.
“Maybe he does want you back too, though. I mean, he was willing to pay a lot of money to find your whereabouts.” I supplied, knowing as I said it that it sounded like garbage.
Based on her expression, she knew it too. Her mouth twisted in a grimace, and her whole face soured. “So you could bring me to him, Brigit. He hired you for a reason, of course. It’s life.” Her shoulders dropped and she scuffed her foot on the ground, tucking her arms behind her back to wring her fingers. “And it is what it is, at this point. No sense in feeling sorry for me. I escaped that shit, and I have no intention of putting myself in that situation ever again.”
And I’d brought it right back to her door. Because her father somehow found Hank, and through him, he hired me. They hadn’t managed to nab me the night they pretended they were going to kidnap Crystal, so they just had to drive the nail in the back a little further, hiring me to find her because they had a lock on her magic. Send me sniffing, find his daughter, and by default she would bring me right into their hands. Why hunt something if you could lore it to you by dangling half a million in their face.
I felt so dumb.
Another thought hit me smack in the forehead, though, and it was one I couldn’t ignore to save my life.
One of those mages pulled me from the shadows like it was a joke. How the hell did he do that? I’d managed to avoid mages for a long time, minding my own business and not getting caught in their affairs when I did decide to use my powers. But that one asshole sensed me hidden in the darkness as if he knew what he was looking for and revealed me faster than I could process what was happening.
It bothered the shit out of me.
For now, I tucked it away to think about later because Elijah showed up, poking his head through the cracked open door, waving us the all clear so we could move outside and get the hell out of there.
Finally.
Fresh air smacked me in the face the moment I stepped outside, the chilly wind whipping my hair all around my head. We moved as a group, rushing through the streets until we were far enough away that we were sure no one had followed. I had to clench my fists so I didn’t reach for the back of Elijah’s jacket to cling to him.
“Any clue where we should go for now?” Crystal whispered, breaking the silence.
“I have a place. But we will need a credit card.” My eyes fell on the back of Elijah’s head. “Got one?”
Nodding, he grinned at me over his shoulder. “I do, and more than one, each with a different name and no way for them to track any of them. Show us where to go, Ms. Grey.”
“Perfect. Follow me.”
It was easy to find our way back to the crappy motel I’d stayed in, but I knew it would be safe, at least for a little while. As long as Crystal and I didn’t use our magic, we should stay off their radar. A little down time would give us a chance to actually formulate some sort of solid plan to get the mages off our tail.
Hopefully.
It didn’t take long to see the barely standing building with a broken sign hanging in front of it. Once there, Elijah rushed inside to pay for a room, his laughter proceeding him as he walked out. “She was … pleasant.” He snorted, hitching a thumb to point at the old lady inside.
Snickering, I couldn’t help the amusement that hit me when I pic
tured him facing off with her. “True. I met her a bit earlier.”
“Ah. When you were trying to hide from me, I presume?”
Avoiding his question, I gestured to the doors in front of us. “Which is ours?”
“Four.” He reached in his pocket handing me a key.
Heading there, I held the brass key with two fingers, touching it as little as I could, and walking in, I found the exact same thing I had in the other room I previously occupied. I really hadn’t expected anything else, either, but I would say they really should fire their housekeeping staff. If they had one at all. This room had two beds, though, and both blankets were splattered with stains that I didn’t even want to know where they came from, and the carpet was actually missing in several spots, leaving bare concrete exposed to the eye. Look at us moving up in the world.
“I don’t know about you, but even with all the shit coming at us, I’m totally going to lay on that nasty looking cover and close my eyes for a little bit. It’s late, and I need some sleep in order to deal with whatever else might hit at us at any time.” Crystal leapt onto the bed without a care in the world, stretching out on her stomach and wrapping her arms around the flat pillow.
“Go for it girl, but I’m too wired to sleep at the moment.” Moving to the bathroom doorway, I peered inside, calling over my shoulder, “I’m going to take a shower. Maybe that will help me relax.”
“Need company?” Elijah offered in a deep, husky tone that slapped me right in the lower belly and sent butterflies in a frenzy through my insides.
I actually laughed, surprising even myself with the sultriness coming out of my mouth. Arrogant as he was, he usually pissed me off, but not tonight. Maybe I was too tired to be angry. Either way, I didn’t reply, and he didn’t push as I closed the door, locking it, although I was sure the lock wouldn’t actually work if he decided to join me. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I was aware that if he did walk in, I wasn’t going to kick him out.