by Emma Dean
Kenzie looked deep inside herself and tried to find Ash, Finnick, and Hunter. The bonds were still there. The marks from their teeth were still sore from the other night. Glancing down at her hand, Kenzie studied the tiny runes on her palm – silvery scars from when she’d pulled Ash out of that memory charm.
They would be looking for her.
She didn’t want to think about how these kidnappers had gotten her out of the heavily warded den without her mates putting up a fight. All she knew was they were still alive.
And that was all that mattered to her right now.
The real question was – why had she been kidnapped? Kenzie tried to think of who she’d pissed off recently, other than the entire Bay Coven. Maybe a clan was trying to get back at her?
It didn’t really matter. Kenzie was going to get out and fuck them up.
She grabbed one of the chains and looked up at the wall where they were anchored. Iron if she was right. Didn’t do anything against her, but there were runes carved into the cuffs. If she’d been a normal witch she’d be cut off from her magic right now.
These assholes weren’t fucking around whoever they were.
For a brief moment she wondered if she could still take magic with these on. Guess she’d have to find out, but she’d keep that potential situation in mind just in case.
Kenzie had been living her whole life as barely more than a human though. She didn’t need her new void skill to get out of this shit. Nope, she could do it on her own just like she’d always done. Kenzie would handle it.
Yanking again, more dust came down. But it wasn’t from the anchor. She looked up at the ceiling and saw the floorboards through a break in the plaster. These anchors weren’t coming out without help then.
Before she could activate the strength charm there was a flash of light and she cursed at the sudden brightness, covering her eyes against the glare. Kenzie fumbled to deactivate the charm as footsteps sounded down the stairs.
“Did you have some magic squirreled away that my brutes somehow missed?” a male voice asked her. The oily feeling it left on the air reminded her of Brad, but it definitely wasn’t someone she’d ever heard before.
She blinked, readjusting to the lack of night vision and then her gaze found the source of that voice.
He smiled at her in a suit that was tailored to perfection. Black on black on black. It was gorgeous and striking on this man who looked vaguely familiar, but Kenzie knew without a shadow of a doubt she’d never met him before in her life.
“Who are you?” she asked, wrapping the chain around her hand again. Her other was free to activate the strength charm the second she knew she was ready.
But things had just gotten more complicated. She had to figure out what this guy was. If he had any kind of power she had to take it from him. Could she do that without touching him, like she’d been practicing?
Eisheth had been insistent she mastered it since touch was so limiting. He knew she could too. After all she’d done it to the fae. Her entire body had just sucked up that magic like a sponge – completely harmless. But it also had been directed at her – she didn’t pull it.
The man adjusted his cufflinks and she saw the gold crescent moon over a pentagram – the symbol of the Council of Paranormals.
A councilman?
What the fuck?
“My name is Phineas Roth. And you’re here for a few reasons,” he explained with that smirk that made her teeth grind together. “I had my eye on you since your new status was logged. I thought perhaps one day you’d join my coven. But then you went and fucked up all my hard work.”
She blinked, trying to figure out what the hell he was even talking about.
Then more footsteps came down the stairs and Kenzie gripped the chain tight, waiting to see who would show – who was the reason she was even here.
The last person in the world she expected to see was Bradley fucking Davis.
Looking from him to the Councilman…Kenzie suddenly realized Brad hadn’t been the mastermind. This asshole was. Which should have been fucking obvious. Brad wasn’t that bright and he wasn’t that motivated. He was a lazy rich boy who’d taken everything life had handed him without looking further. Never once had he tried to do something more.
But this guy…
“Are you a witch?” she asked. It would make sense if this Phineas dude had the same goals as Brad, or maybe he’d groomed Brad? Who really knew? Either way they had kidnapped her for a reason and she needed to find out why.
“The most powerful male witch on the east coast,” Phineas said, smiling slightly.
Kenzie flashed him a grin. “That’s like saying you’re the most mediocre witch in America. Good for you.”
Instantly his smile disappeared and she could see that same hatred in his eyes. The one Brad had when he talked about how unfair it was that he couldn’t rule the coven. Like he even had that kind of power.
“I see why Bradley dislikes you so much.”
“Kenzie has always been a bitch,” Brad said with that smirk of his. “But it’s just because she’s jealous.” Then Brad snapped his fingers and a small flame floated above his fingers. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it while she just gaped.
“How the fuck do you have powers?”
Phineas stepped forward. “I’m a Councilman. There is a lot I can do. After all, I control three covens. It was nothing to repair the damage Takahashi did.”
“What, so you’re looking to expand and wanted to start with the Bay Coven?” Kenzie scoffed. “What makes you think you’d take one of the strongest covens in America?”
Phineas said nothing, but Kenzie didn’t really care. She already knew what she needed to know. He was an asshole and nothing more than a witch. She’d have to be careful, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.
The final question she needed answered before she made a run for it was – did these cuffs somehow prevent her from taking their power? Not much was known about voids other than the basics and there had been so few of them. Had someone really managed to find a way to cut off her abilities from her?
Or did the cuffs work the same as they did for all witches? Kenzie had never thought to look into how or why these kinds of cuffs worked and now she was kicking herself for it.
If they cut her off from the universe – that was one thing. Kenzie didn’t need the universe to take power. Only her body. But if the cuffs managed to cut her off from what made her a witch…
Well, then she was truly fucked.
“What do you plan to do with me?” Kenzie asked. “Why am I even here?”
Phineas smiled again and it sent a shiver down her spine. “We want your portal. Unsupervised travel between planes? Imagine what I could do with that – the covens I could take, like candy from a baby.”
Kenzie knew then that he’d called her mates. He had to have if he expected to receive it. “They’ll never give it to you.”
“Oh, I think they will,” Brad told her. “I saw the way they look at you.” He walked toward her with a swagger that begged for someone to just put him out of his misery already. Brad was within reaching distance now. He blew a ring of smoke right into her face.
Kenzie’s free hand shot out so fast Brad never had time to get away. She gripped his shirt and yanked him forward. Once he was off balance she wrapped her hand around his throat and pulled.
The cigarette dropped from his hand as all his power poured into her. Kenzie took every last drop from him – all he’d done, and every victim murdered…watching his skin turn white and then grey as she took everything from him in just a breath.
How dare they involve her mates.
A second was all it took and she was suddenly the one with power. She dropped Brad to the floor – nothing more than a husk now. Then she turned her gaze to Phineas.
The councilman had the good sense to look nervous, but the way he eyed her cuffs…Kenzie had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to use the magic she’d taken. So sh
e folded it and tucked it away.
“Do you wanna play a game with me?” she asked, wrapping more of the chain around her wrist. Her fingertips tingled with the power in her veins. There wasn’t all that much of it and it wasn’t as potent as Eisheth’s. But it was still magic.
Phineas swallowed but he didn’t back down, eyes still on the cuffs. “What did you have in mind?”
She grinned, understanding the foxes on a level she never had before. Everything was a game – even life. But winning, that was the real prize. All she had to do was play.
“Can you recapture me before I escape?”
Phineas chuckled, slipping his hands into his pockets. “That’s hell-forged iron. Good luck getting out of it.”
Kenzie hesitated for just a split second. She didn’t know shit about hell-forged iron. But she knew a demon. Too bad she couldn’t call him and ask.
Could a bear shifter rip through it though?
“All right then. It should be easy enough for you to win, shouldn’t it?” She tilted her head and her grin widened.
Fuck it, she was going to do it or rip her arm off trying.
Kenzie activated the strength charm and the second she felt that familiar tingle she yanked on the chains with all her magic-given strength. The anchors ripped from the wall in a cloud of dust and debris.
It was just enough distraction that Phineas didn’t see the chains coming when she whipped them around. They wrapped around his ankles and she yanked again. Phineas landed flat on his back with a loud ‘oof.’
She had her foot on his throat before he could even blink. “Looks like I’m winning,” she taunted. “And I can’t even use the magic I stole. I guess you really are the most mediocre witch in America.”
Phineas laughed then, loud and long. It was the first time since meeting him that she truly felt scared. “Oh Mackenzie, you’re exactly what I was hoping you’d be.”
He grabbed her ankle so fast he blurred and then suddenly she was on her back with Phineas baring his teeth at her.
“Did you really think I was just a witch?” His eyes seemed to change. They glowed with something silvery and white. “Would you like to play a game with me, Mackenzie Kavanagh?”
Kenzie was too shocked to respond. What the hell had she gotten herself into? Just as she was about to ask what the hell was he…
Something exploded above them.
Chapter Twenty-One
Hunter
Jace signaled the number of guards and that he and his passel of raccoons would go right, circling around. Hunter nodded and looked up at the cameras mounted on the estate’s walls, one hand on his rifle, the other buried in the fur at the nape of Finnick’s neck.
Thank fuck they had witches on their side otherwise they never would have found Kenzie. Because she was definitely not being held at the drop which meant the fucker had never planned to release her.
If he didn’t have to get his mate out alive, he would just burn the entire place to the ground.
“Cameras will be put on a loop in ten seconds,” Ash whispered, his voice echoing through the comms. “Wait for our signal.”
Because as he’d told Kenzie, they could make themselves invisible.
Hunter just thought the words and suddenly he couldn’t even see himself. It had been disconcerting the first few times until he’d gotten used to it. Finnick was gone a moment later even though he could still feel him under his hand. Ash was next.
The three of them moved as one toward the fancy house on the outskirts of San Francisco. It was no doubt very expensive with its gorgeous view of the ocean, even at night.
It was nothing for them to make their way across the grounds, avoiding the obvious guards, and scale the wall to the first camera. Hunter pulled out his tech and went to work. He had five more seconds before Jace and the others would start taking down guards on the other side.
There. “Cameras are looped,” he muttered. “Give me a second to see what’s inside if I can.”
This cold, deadly place inside of him was what Hunter was used to. Not the swirling void of emotions, screaming at him to do something – to kill every last person inside this building for taking his mate.
Hunter owed someone a lot of pain though, and he wanted to do this right. Because the only thing keeping him from going completely ballistic was that thick, heavy bond between him and the fiery witch who was not a witch.
She was everything to him and it had taken a long time for Hunter to finally admit that to himself.
Kenzie was everything and he would be nothing without her. She made him feel…whole. She made the emptiness inside go away so it no longer whispered at him to do things – anything – to fill it.
Hunter was a problem solver. And this problem would be handled – in the way he preferred best.
“Inside has twice as many guards. Jace, I want you and your team to go straight to the second floor and work your way upwards. We’ll do main floor down. Edith and Selene – keep to the back and wait for us to clear the guards outside.”
Nothing could happen to them or Kenzie would never talk to him again. That prospect might have been something he’d wanted before – silence…but not anymore.
A few tweaks and the front gate swung open silently. Hunter could see the raccoons were already at work, dropping bodies like they did it every day. He admired Ben’s work for a moment before jumping back to the ground.
Every guard he found still alive was dead in seconds and Hunter felt that sick satisfaction. They’d taken his mate. They deserved this. They deserved to suffer and die if kidnapping someone wasn’t abnormal to them.
Hunter bared his teeth, fighting the urge to rip out throats with them instead of using the knife in his hand to hit the major arteries. The guards bled out silently in seconds. Hunter moved on before each one hit the ground.
“You got them all?” he asked Jace when they reached the other side.
“Fuck dude, I hate when you do that,” Jace muttered. “Yeah outside is clear. You got a plan for clean up? This is a lot of dead bodies.”
Chance tried to pinpoint where he was, but then shrugged and worked his way back around to the front where Selene and Edith waited with Aiden.
“We’re going to burn this place to the ground once we get what we came for,” Hunter told him. “There won’t be any bodies left to identify.”
Jace’s eyes widened. “Just make sure everyone’s out before then. I know how you can get when provoked.”
The snarl ripped through him before he could stop it. “Then don’t fucking provoke me, Jace. Just get the job done and get paid. Take whatever you want. I don’t care. Just help me get my mate out alive.”
Finnick pressed against his leg and Hunter took a deep breath. He pulled up his rifle and sighted as he ran toward the front, reminding himself they still had time. He could still feel Kenzie through the bond. She was still alive.
She was still alive.
She was still alive.
She was still alive.
Ash
Ash waited for Hunter to go through the door first. Years of practicing while invisible was the only reason he hadn’t shot his own alpha. Finnick brushed against his leg as he passed and they all moved as one.
Edith and Selene followed close behind with Aiden to guard them from physical attacks.
There were so many guards – or thugs. He didn’t really know, and he didn’t really care. They were dressed like private military and that’s all Ash needed to know. Whoever was in charge did shady shit and these people didn’t care as long as they were paid.
Ash pulled out his pistol with the silencer, taking out the guards too far away while Hunter slit the throats of any that were hidden. Finnick guarded their backs, hamstringing any that tried to find them and got too close. Sometimes their throats would be ripped out and it was a gruesome thing to see.
But when one couldn’t see what was doing the ripping?
Panic ensued – and real terror.
; The screams and shouts and pounding feet were music to his ears. So many of them they would each get a decent amount of payback.
“Silver bullets,” Jace gritted out over the comms. “Be careful. They hit Chance, but he’ll live.”
“Get him back to the van,” Hunter ordered. “Then rejoin us. Aiden, go join Ben. We’ll take care of Edith and Selene.”
A shimmer of blue magic sprung up before a space of nothing – stopping bullets from shredding through Hunter. “We can take care of ourselves,” Selene snapped. “Lucky for you I can see the magic on you. Or you’d be dead right now.”
Hunter didn’t respond. Ash knew his alpha well. He didn’t give a shit about dying as long as they got Kenzie.
The invisibility flickered. “Shit we’re out of time.” Ash checked his and suddenly he could see his whole arm. “Our fifteen minutes is up.”
Then suddenly he could see Hunter right as he stepped up to one of the guys trying to sniper them out of existence. The crack as he broke his neck was deafening even in all the chaos.
Ash wasted no time sweeping through the main floor of the house, one eye scanning every single fucking thing and the other watching out for Edith and Selene. Though Edith simply burned a path through the house with a fire so hot it was nearly invisible, but flickered blue when you squinted just right.
Very effective.
Motion in the corner of his eye. He turned and threw a knife with all his considerable strength before the asshole could shoot Finnick – who was busy ripping into another guard. Old memories surfaced and Ash shoved them down.
He pressed his back against the wall and took a moment to catch his breath in the gorgeous house now covered in blood. Glancing down at his right hand he knew that even though he couldn’t see the scarred runes on his palm through the glove, they were there. And Kenzie had a set just like it somewhere in this place.
The gun came up and Ash shot three assholes on the second floor as Ben and Aiden moved up the stairs, taking out more guys.
Whoever had stolen Kenzie from them had a whole fucking army bought and paid for. That asshole had anticipated this. He’d known they would come for her and had prepared. This guy knew what they were capable of as he watched Edith and Selene nod at each other, splitting up against orders.