Hunted Witch Agency Box Set Books 4-5 (Hunted Witch Agency Set Book 2)

by Rachel Medhurst

  The doubtful look on Mackenzie’s face was justified. I was ready to arrest him before I came to the meeting. Not that I would’ve been allowed, but still, it wouldn’t have taken much for me to get him on his arse to slap handcuffs on him. Yep, it would probably need him sitting down for me to be able to reach.

  “Fine.” Mackenzie offered his hand. “I’ll be back here in three days regardless. I trust you to keep your word.”

  Without any hesitation, Gerard shook on it. He would keep his word. My man was honourable, which made him exciting. Which made me smile to myself. I was so going to jump his bones as soon as we got back to the agency building. Watching him work was making me more and more hot and bothered. Maybe it was the lack of magic. My addiction was making me a little itchy, although I didn’t feel as bad as I had before. I was actually looking forward to being rid of all the extra power. Mostly.

  “Until then.” Mackenzie saluted us as he strode away, his gait fast, his gaze searching the almost empty station.

  “Did you get that?” Gerard said as he put his phone next to his ear.

  Blocking them out, I watched as Mackenzie went through the door and disappeared into the darkness. If he was right, and Cameron was the one who was poisoning the drugs, it changed the whole case. We had to go back to the drawing board.

  “Right,” Gerard said, bringing my attention to him. “We’ll head straight back.”

  As he turned to me, I reached out to wrap my fingers in his shirt. He tucked his phone into his pocket, his eyebrows raising as the corner of his lip quirked. “It’s been a productive night,” he said, his husky voice going deeper as I pulled him towards me.

  Keeping eye contact with him, I bit my bottom lip. “It really has.”

  “You’re changing.” His jaw clenched as he cupped my face. “The addiction is releasing its hold on you. I’ve never seen you so…”

  “Sexy?” I inquired. “Scatty? Or maybe-”

  “Soft.”

  Soft? I wasn’t soft, I was… melting under his gaze. It was all him. Well, and all the lessons I’d had to absorb over the last few months as an agent. Good times, and bad, had shaped me. And, yet, there would be many more to come.

  “You’re not fighting me on that?” he said, his gaze narrowing.

  Trying not to smile, I lowered my gaze. It only landed on his chest, because you know, he was still holding my face. “I don’t want to fight you.”

  His chest rose as he took a deep breath. “Look at me,” he whispered.

  When our gaze met again, I gasped. He was so beautiful. He had also softened, even more than I had. In fact, he could almost be called Mr Kind Hearted Softy. It wasn’t quite as sexy as my previous nicknames though.

  “How about yourself?” He rubbed his thumb over my lip.

  Suppressing a shiver, I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you want to fight with yourself?”

  What was it with emotions flooding me all of a sudden? He was right. I was changing, but I didn’t know why.

  “No,” I whispered. “I don’t want to fight myself.”

  Leaning forward, Gerard kissed me on the forehead, then the nose. When his lips landed on mine, they pressed gently, not intruding, not too sexy. The kiss was sensual, supportive, and extremely loving.

  Pulling away, he wiped the tear that had fallen from my eye. My heart was beating hard, my stomach was fluttering, but I kept eye contact, even though I wanted to look away.

  “I love you.” His voice was quiet, deep.

  A shudder made my body hum much more than any magic could. His love was so much better for me. Not that I would rely on him for my happiness. No, I was a twenty first century woman. I needed to find my own happiness. Then we could come together and have all the happiness, all of the time, forever and ever. Okay, it was probably overkill, but still.

  “I love you, too.”

  Our next kiss grew a little heated. Both of our phones buzzed, making us jump. When that happened, it meant Justina was trying to get hold of us. Gerard had only spoken to her a moment ago, was something wrong already?

  “Bubble burst,” I muttered as we let go of each other.

  Gerard was the first to read the message. “Shit!” he exclaimed. “The government let Cameron out of prison three hours ago. They don’t know where he is.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Dragging my slippers as I went to the library door, I didn’t even bother to knock. Who in their right mind would call a meeting at six in the morning?

  “Nice of you to join us,” Justina said as she came over and plopped a mug of coffee in my hand. “You’re twenty minutes late.”

  Gerard, looking all awake and shit, winked at me as I lowered myself into my favourite armchair. When I yawned, my mother frowned in my direction. I’d had five hours sleep. It wasn’t enough for my little brain. I needed all the help I could get to keep my mind working, including as much sleep as possible.

  “I’m…” Glancing at the clock on the wall, I cringed. “…late. Sorry.”

  Gerard had set the alarm for five forty-five. I’d heard it but hadn’t quite been able to force myself to wake up. Once my man had left, claiming that he wouldn’t get into trouble for me, Kingsley started squeaking loudly. The little bugger had become my personal alarm clock, driving me insane with the noise. Finally, I had fallen out of bed and given him a biscuit. His cute kiss against my finger made me forgive him instantly.

  “We’ve had a call from the PM. She said that her team put a tracking spell on Cameron, but he must have disabled it straight away.” Justina handed me a piece of old parchment paper.

  The spell on it wasn’t familiar, but the Essex family symbol, or one of them anyway, was drawn in the bottom left hand corner.

  “Great,” I said, handing it to my mother. “I suppose Gemma Abbot cast the spell for them?”

  Tipping her head once, Justina went back to her desk. She pointed at the bank of CCTV screens to her left. “A camera in East London has managed to trace Cameron Fieldman walking towards the docks.”

  Kurt leant over the desk to pick up a croissant from the tray of sweet breakfast things. My stomach audibly rumbled as soon as my eyes saw it. Justina swallowed hard, her eyes instantly averting. Pregnancy sickness must be awful.

  Without uttering a word, Kurt threw me the pastry, laughing when I only just caught it in my fingers. A flashback to the day I had come in for my interview and the cup of tea that almost fell off the table made me smile. So much had happened since then.

  “I want Devon and Julia to try and trace Cameron using the spell. Your connections combined might help.”

  Her unspoken words about my mother helping to support me while I was in the midst of my addiction were loud. Only to me though. Everyone else was staring at the screen where Cameron was walking down the road, checking over his shoulder once.

  “See, there?” Justina said, pausing the video. “His eyes widen, which means he’s noticed something, or someone, behind him. He then reaches for his phone.”

  “I wonder if the government had him followed,” Kurt said.

  Justina put a hand over her mouth, her eyes blinking. I’d been chomping on my pastry, but seeing her almost vomit made my chewing slow down. I couldn’t watch her puke up, it would make me do the same.

  “Shall we try the spell now? Just so we can see if it will be easy to trace him?”

  She waved me away, turning from us as she fought to control the morning sickness. My mother got to her feet, bringing the spell with her as I indicated that she followed me.

  “I’m glad you did that,” she said as we exited the library and made our way to the small living room.

  We kept a big map of London on the table in there. It would help us to try and locate Cameron.

  “I just hope Kurt gives her something to stop the sickness,” I said, my mind suddenly snapping awake. “Shit, it’s the solstice tonight.”

  My mother’s arm came around my shoulder as we stepped i
nto the living room. I’d been a little distant with her since she’d told me that she’d basically arranged a marriage for me. My skin heated as I tried not to shrug her off.

  “You’ll be fine. If we focus on Cameron for a few hours, you can then turn your attention to that. It’s not until midnight.”

  Footsteps sounded as my father came in shortly after us. Going over to the table, I placed my hands on the surface to look down at the map. I did not need a family meeting. I needed to wake up and concentrate.

  “Right,” I said, holding my hand out to my mum. “If we do the spell together, we can hopefully latch on to the remaining trace of energy. I don’t know how he’s managed to disable it considering how powerful Gemma must be.”

  Moving to stand beside me, my mother handed me the piece of paper. She looked down at the map, her eyes unable to meet mine.

  “I’m sure he’s probably just hidden himself. Gemma is very powerful, but together, we can find him.” Her voice was quiet, placating.

  “Okay,” I said, huffing out my breath as my father stood on the other side of the table. “I can tell you want to say something.”

  “We don’t really have time, but we want to apologise for what we did,” my father said, waving his hand when my mother went to speak. “No, I’m sorry, Devon. We were wrong to try and intervene in your life. We’ve seen what our choices have done to you. We thought that we might be able to redeem ourselves if we could somehow help you.”

  It went silent, our breathing the only sound in the room. My heart was heavy as my father rubbed a hand over his face. I’d never seen him so passionate, so riled up about something.

  “It’s fine,” I said slowly, deliberately. “I forgive you. For everything.”

  He frowned at me, his eyebrows pulled low over his brown eyes. “Do you mean that?”

  Glancing at my mother, I smiled. She was watching me closely, her hands clenched by her sides. Was she worried that I was being flippant? I did have a habit of brushing people off so I didn’t have to deal with them.

  “I mean it.” Taking my mother’s hands, I unclenched them. “I love you both very much. It’s taken some time to get used to you being here. I’ve worked with my therapist to let go of the resentment I held for you.”

  My father came around the desk. Putting one arm around my mum, he did the same to me and drew us both in for a hug. “It makes me very happy to hear that you’ve forgiven us. We’re always going to be here for you. Regardless of what you choose for your life. We’ll no longer try to interfere. Just… choose a good man.”

  I’d been sniffing his fatherly scent, the familiar smell making me close my eyes. At his words, I pulled back. “You don’t think Gerard’s a good man?”

  Putting his hand on my head, he looked down at me. I felt small then, like a child again. His acceptance of the man I loved meant more to me than I had first realised. I was prepared to go it alone, prepared to accept their dislike of my decisions, but deep down, I was like any person. I wanted their support.

  “Yes, he’s a good man.”

  A small noise from my mother made me look at her. She waved a hand in front of her face. “It’s just… the consequences that worry us, but only because we love you.”

  Okay, now we were moving on to territory that I wasn’t ready to talk about. That conversation would come when the solstice was over and Cameron was either in prison or dead.

  “Let’s get on with the spell. Justina will be expecting us to return soon.”

  Both of them hugged me tightly before they let go. My throat suddenly threatened to close, but I quickly pushed the emotions away and clicked into agent mode.

  “Right,” my mother said, putting the piece of paper on the table between us. “Let’s do this.”

  My father moved to the other side again, ready to tell us if the tracking spell worked when we tried to link back into it.

  Taking my mum’s hand, I glanced at her to confirm she was ready. She smiled broadly, her energy much lighter than it had been when we first walked into the room.

  Reading the spell, I memorised it as quickly as I could before closing my eyes. My mother’s fingers tightened on mine as I started the chant. She joined in after the first round. The link that connected me to the ley line was strong as I felt into it, envisioning the pure white magic, ethereal under the surface of the earth. My feet were cool as I tugged some into my body, the feeling intensifying when my mother did the same. We were hooked into the same line, our blood connecting us both.

  Heat bubbled under my soles as the warlock magic tried to gain entrance. Refusing it, I almost felt sad that I was using my witch magic more often than not. I loved both sides of me, but the pure magic was a little easier to resist.

  The chanting echoed around the room as it grew louder. The room grew warm as our magic zoned in on the location of Cameron Fieldman’s DNA. Justina had made sure to take a sample from our database.

  “It’s done,” my father said.

  We both finished the last part of the spell before we opened our eyes. A small smile passed between us before we looked down at the map. It was an honour to link into the ley line with my mother. It might even be the last time.

  Blinking, I cleared the thought quickly. I couldn’t think about what I would miss if I gave up my connection to the ley line, I had to think about what I would miss if I didn’t. Gerard far outweighed magic. My mother would always be my mother, regardless of what journey I chose.

  Leaning forward, I spotted where a bright red splodge had appeared on the map. It wasn’t blood. In fact, I had no idea what it was. Still, it was showing a hotel underneath it. That was handy.

  “He’s in South London,” I said, looking up when Justina, Kurt and Gerard came into the room. “Staying in a hotel by the looks of it.”

  “Good work,” Justina said, marching over and examining the map. “Julia, Kevin, if you could watch the map, we’ll go and stake him out.”

  “It’s moving,” my mum said, pointing at the red mark.

  She was right, it was tracking down the road beside the hotel. We had to get there fast, before we lost him. There was a risk that he realised that the tracking spell had been reactivated.

  “Let’s go,” Justina said, getting out her gun. “Stay behind me. We want to see where he goes, not capture him straight away. I’m betting he’ll check up on his enterprise. He has no idea that we even know that he’s out. The government said that they promised him that they wouldn’t tell us so he could collect the evidence needed to get Mackenzie.”

  “Are they fucking idiots?” Gerard spat, his face screwed up.

  Laughing, I got my dagger out as I rounded the table and fell in line with my colleagues. The human government really didn’t know what they were doing when it came to the paranormal underworld. Why were they getting involved?

  “They are fucking idiots,” Kurt said, nodding at my parents as he zipped up his leather jacket. “Let’s go and get this motherfucker.”

  Before I could say goodbye, Gerard grabbed my hand and did a relocation spell. We landed in the street we’d just seen on the map. Spinning as I searched the people who rushed down the road, I kept my dagger tight in my grip, just in case. Cameron’s back was retreating around the corner, his dark navy suit moving perfectly with his frame.

  “There!” I said to the others as they also searched. “He just turned left.”

  We ran, dodging those who were in our way. Being conspicuous wasn’t great, but we didn’t have time to tip toe. We were going to catch the bastard out, otherwise I would resign myself.

  As we rounded the corner, his back strode down the walkway, moving through the rushing throng of people. They were all on their way to work. Rush hour wasn’t the best time to be tracking someone.

  “Shit,” Justina said when he disappeared. “He’s gone. Julia,” she barked into her phone. “Which way did he go?”

  We let Justina take the lead as my mother told her which direction he had taken. A couple o
f humans frowned at us, muttering under their breath when we shoved our way past. It was London, we were British, what did they expect?

  Except, they were probably curious as to why we were moving in unison, our sexy outfits telling a story they had no idea about. It was fun being an agent. Sometimes.

  My dagger was tucked close to me, as were the others’ weapons. We didn’t want to cause panic in the street. It would look bad. Not only on the agency, but on the underworld. The government were precious as it was. We didn’t need to give them any excuses to enforce even stricter laws.

  “Down this way,” Justina said quietly, making us wait behind her as she checked around the corner of the end of the street.

  Obviously it was clear because she waved us forward. Overtaking, I marched, my gaze glued to our enemy’s back. He had to be leading us somewhere. If he wasn’t, I was sweating for nothing.

  He was heading into an industrial area. Factories and office blocks meant that the atmosphere was different. Less people, more fumes. The same amount of cars. London never slept.

  “Where is he going?” I whispered to Gerard as we waited, trying to stay hidden by the few people around.

  Just as he looked over his shoulder, we ducked behind a phone box. I almost tripped, my boots slipping out from under me. Gerard’s arm caught me around the waist, hauling me upright again. He was my hero.

  “He just changed course,” Justina said, getting the info from my mother.

  We pushed on, our footsteps parallel to each other. Well, almost. Mine were double the others, but I was still beside them.

  Reaching a side alley, Justina poked her head around. We waited for her command. My insides shivered at the idea of catching Cameron out. Surely, he was leading us to evidence. If not, there was a good chance I would explode.

  “Okay.” Justina gestured for us to follow her.

  All four of us were on edge, our weapons ready, our nerves shaking. Or, at least mine were, anyway.

  “He’s gone into that building,” Justina whispered as she pointed to a grimy door.