by A. L. Tyler
Alex had intervened in Millie’s life and made her a criminal. Nick had intervened in Louis Jr.’s life and stopped him from becoming one. No one had ever intervened for me because I pushed them all away, and now I was a terrible judge of my own character.
Could I be a good enough criminal to rival Millie? Yes, I was sure of it. Still, Millie was a fool if she thought she was going to hunt down Alex. No one went to Alex.
Alex came to you.
I blinked. Staring into space over the hood of my car, I stopped dead in my tracks. Alex comes to you...
“What?” Angel asked, coming around the car to me. “Are you burning? Need another draw?”
I swatted her hand away and then tossed my keys at her.
“Feed my cat!” I called, walking briskly back inside. “I’ve got to talk to Nick!”
Chapter 30
NICK NARROWED HIS EYES when he opened the door.
I charged in past him, pulled out my phone, and grabbed my favorite flier from the collection on the fridge.
“Hi. Delivery, please.”
Nick watched me in amusement until I hung up the phone. “I take it you’re staying here tonight.”
“I am.” I went to his stack of research and started to move it off the coffee table.
“Whoa!” He was behind me in a flash, taking the papers from my hand. “We don’t know each other well enough for that.”
“I need space,” I replied.
“And yet here you are, moving back in.”
“No.” I shoved the rest of the papers off the coffee table. “Space. Do you have a map?”
Nick groaned as the papers went flying.
Seeing the look of sheer disappointment on his face, I looked back at the mess I’d made. “You have a spell for that, right?”
He shook his head. “I’ll find a map. Local?”
“Wyoming.”
He was back three seconds later, spreading the map on the coffee table. “Are you going to tell me what this is about?”
I smiled. “I know where Millie is.”
That got his attention.
“She’s stalking me.” I sat down to commandeer Nick’s laptop. “This has been her plan all along. She couldn’t find Alex, so she found me, and she waited until she was sure Alex knew where I was. And Alex wouldn’t give up this chance. He’s coming for me.”
Nick frowned, crossing his arms. “You’re looking unusually happy about that.”
“If Alex is after me, that means Millie is watching me.” I almost laughed. “She probably stole something each of us touched just in case she needed to do a locater spell.”
A slow smile spread across Nick’s face. He nodded. “So you want to go where locater spells don’t work.”
“Because that way,” I said. “She’ll have to follow us on foot.”
“YOU THINK SHE’S WATCHING?” Nick slammed the car door shut. Between his munitions and the camping gear, it was a tight fit.
“She’s watching,” I said.
My eyes scanned the buildings and street around us, but Millie knew me too well. She had studied me for months, and she knew how far back to stay so I didn’t hear her magic signatures.
She’d been planning this for years, though. She wasn’t going to blow it. Wherever she was, she was planning her meals and pee breaks around my sleeping schedule.
Sucked to be her for the last week.
“Warren, I want to repeat that I’m here for Jette.” Angel eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t do take down work.”
“Understood.”
“Because when you called me, saying you needed backup on this one, it didn’t sound like you understood.”
Nick got into the driver’s seat. He leaned across and opened the passenger side door before my hand—two inches away—could make contact. He stared up at me and Angel.
“Understood. You’re not backup.”
“We won’t need backup,” I grumbled. “She found me, she tipped off the Bleak, she played me for a fool, and now she’s using me as live bait. When we find her, she’s mine.”
Angel rolled her eyes. “Shotgun.”
I sighed and climbed into the back of the car. Angel reached for the seatbelt that wasn’t there and then performed a spell to keep herself stuck to the seat. I heard it ring out like an ax smacking into firewood, acute and perfectly executed.
Nick adjusted his rear-view mirror. Our eyes met.
“I don’t like this,” he said. “Your whole plan is predicated on the idea that Millie is watching you because Alex is watching you. Jette, if Alex follows us, too...”
“I’m sure he will.” I tried to hold the confidence in my voice. “I also know he isn’t going to take his chances in the unknown.” My palms started to sweat. I exhaled a shaky breath. “Did you manage to find someone? Someone, to—”
Nick shot me another look as he started the car. “Your house is being watched. You won’t come home to anything unexpected.”
“Thank you.” I breathed deep, hesitating as I caught Angel sneaking me a glance over her shoulder. “After we get back, I might appreciate—as a professional courtesy, I mean—not being alone.”
Nick pulled out of the lot. This time, he didn’t look back at me. “Of course.”
THAT NIGHT, ANGEL FELL asleep with her head against the window. Even stretched out on the back seat, staring at the roof of the car and curled beneath my jacket, I wasn’t tired.
The sounds of Nick’s enchantments set the mood for my sleepless night. The highway was loud under the wheels of his old car and the bench seat wasn’t the most comfortable. It smelled like thousands of fast food road meals wearing a mask of minty car freshener.
“Driftwood?”
I blinked, surprised out of my faux solitude. “Yes?”
“You should try to sleep.”
I rolled onto my side, facing the back of his seat. “How do you know? When I’m sleeping?”
The steady tread of the car into Wyoming was taking us closer to the ley line. We were just on the edge of the disruption.
“Your breathing, mostly,” he said quietly. “You’re tense. You’re always riding a crisis, but when you sleep, you’re at peace. Your breathing slows, and your heart slows. It’s the only time you relax.”
I furrowed my brow. I’d been awake too long, and I rubbed at my dry eyes. “How do you do it? How do you ever relax in this job?”
He thought for a while. As always, his voice was sure and steady. “You have good days and bad days. You see a lot of it, and you try to remember that you see it so no one else has to. I deal with the worst of them, and I meet people on some of the most horrible days of their lives. You can never fix that, but you can try to fix whatever happens next. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I like to think that one person, in the right place at the right time, can make a difference between better and worse.” He paused. “Try to sleep. You’re going to need it.”
One person, in the right place at the right time. He was right. I was going to need my rest.
I’d made a mistake by assuming Millie was any less dangerous than Alex. I wasn’t sure anymore.
Would she have gone in for Alex before or after he killed me? Before would be the civil thing to do, but his guard would have been down after. I was the bait in this scenario, and I knew how it ended for any worm who went fishing.
I wondered how much she had enjoyed watching me writhe for my life after she’d hooked me with Nick and the potentially fatal charges he’d levied against me.
Millie didn’t care then if I lived or died. She just wanted me to squirm enough that Alex would take notice.
That’s who she was: the criminal I could never be. Her ends justified her means, and if I had to die so she could look into Alex’s eyes as she ended him, so be it.
And she was just as deceptively charming as he was.
When we confronted her, I would be confronting a killer. She was ready to watch me die, and she’d tempted fate twice now. I needed to be read
y to defend myself.
I needed to be ready to deal with everything that came with ending a life to save my own, and if Kane was any indication, I didn’t fare well in those scenarios.
I didn’t want to kill Millie. It put enough anxiety in my chest that I didn’t want to fall asleep and hear Kane’s screams again. I didn’t want to wake up in an inferno.
Whatever was going to happen in the wilderness, it actively scared the hell out of me.
So I stared at the roof of the car and I felt the road bump along beneath us. I listened to Nick’s spell work and Angel’s light snoring. Nick eventually turned the radio on low. The oldies crooned a backdrop to my thoughts as we cruised along through the darkened feral landscape around us.
The ley line hummed louder, the forest grew denser, and my eyes started to drift shut.
That’s when something exploded, and the old Chevelle took a sharp right into a deep ditch.
Chapter 31
WE SLAMMED INTO THE ditch at full highway speed and the sides of the car buckled as the front tried to sandwich us into the trunk.
“Obicere!” Nick yelled the spell.
The force of the impact deflected around us just as his seat touched my forehead. Weight shifted, the seats shifted—one of my legs was pinned between the back seat and the front.
But the car stopped. It creaked and groaned around us as the twisted metal settled. Glass from the windows tinkled beneath the low, resonating cello aftermath of Nick’s force field.
Thank the gods for vampiric speed and awareness.
“The fuck just happened?” Angel glared over at Nick.
I grimaced and pulled my leg free from between the seats. It was going to bruise, but Nick’s spell had narrowly saved it from breaking.
I sat up and stared into the half-ripped-off folded hood and the grassy embankment coming through the windshield.
Nick’s jaw tensed. He shook his head. “This is going to cost a small fortune.”
Angel was still glaring in disbelief. She reached for the door handle initially, but it was too busted and crumpled to open. She started to hoist herself up to exit through the window.
“Wait!” Nick reached for her arm, but another glare made him pull his hand back. “Let me clear the glass.”
He climbed out of his own window first, dragging bloody scratches across his hands. It must have hurt, but I understood his reasoning. Vampires healed quickly.
Angel pinched the bridge of her nose. “He’s walking away, isn’t he?”
I could barely see up and out the back of the car. The dim pre-dawn light didn’t help. “He’s not leaving us. He’s just doing a quick perimeter sweep to be sure—”
“I know that,” Angel said humorlessly. “Because I swore the last time was the last time! Idiot’s going to get himself staked, leaving his firepower in the car!”
She was halfway out the window when Nick came back to help lift her out. I wedged myself over the seat and into the front. Nick offered me a hand and I pulled myself free of the wreck. It was amazing that Angel’s legs had survived the compression of the engine and front into the passenger area, but that was magic: better than seat belts and airbags.
Angel stood at the top of the embankment generating a humming chorus of crickets as she ran her hands over her limited injuries, healing herself. The sound was nearly lost in the distortion of the ley line.
I stared back down at the car. The front was demolished and the damage extended all the way across the top to the trunk. Nick’s force field made an odd, untouched bubble in the middle of the destruction.
That made one more time that Millie had tried to kill me.
Angel leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees as she stared at the wreckage. She looked up at Nick, who was also fixated on the sight.
“Do you want me to—?”
“It’s a Velle, Angel. No one touches this car but a professional. No magic.”
“You just touched this car with magic—”
“It’s my car. We know each other.”
I was dumbfounded. “You think a mechanic can fix this?”
Nick smiled, but it was gone in an instant. “You don’t know my mechanic. Is your leg okay?”
The sound of crickets flared up again, and I pulled my leg away just as Angel finished her feeling spell.
“It’s fine!” I protested. “A courtesy to ask first?”
“I’m a doctor,” Angel crossed her arms. “And it’s your magic, anyway.”
“It’s a ley line!” I snapped.
Angel flipped me the bird.
Nick sighed. “Alex?”
“Millie,” I grumbled. “This would have bored Alex. Too fast, and not enough flare.”
Nick forced the trunk open so we could get our gear. I circled the car, but it wasn’t hard to find the source of our demise.
All of the tires had popped simultaneously. All that was left of the hex—laid on the road, probably, and not the tires themselves—were the fading wind chimes of spent magic returning to the natural world.
“She could have killed us,” Nick said, still looking broody about his car. “Do not pull your punches this time, Driftwood.”
I pursed my lips, because I had to question. A hex to disable the car could have mutated to do this under the influence of the ley line, and Millie would know that I wouldn’t want anyone trying to fix the car with magic again.
“She wanted us on foot,” I determined. “She probably didn’t mean to do this to the car. She’s shooting from the hip because we changed her plan.”
Nick wasn’t amused. He retrieved an extra gun and some loudly ringing restraints from his car. “Yeah, well, she’s already used the free pass I gave her.”
We continued on foot. When the sun was up, we left the road and ventured into the forest.
The ley line was getting louder and louder, like a ringing in my ears that wouldn’t stop. It made it hard to focus and drowned out the other sounds around me. After a point, it was hard to even hear Nick and Angel’s voices.
In short, the one supernatural defense I had mastered was gone. I was beginning to question if coming to the ley line and challenging Millie was a good idea.
And we hiked on, not knowing when she was coming or what would happen when she did. We stopped for lunch, eating the granola bars we’d packed and debating whether we should keep moving or set up a base camp.
Nick had a point that Angel and I would need to sleep eventually. We set up camp.
Rather, Nick set up camp. Angel wanted to help, but in the only way she knew how.
“I can’t even use magic to set up a damn tent?” She crossed her arms and stared at me with skepticism.
The blaring in my ears was relentless. I had to try to remember that no one else could hear the warning siren. “Not even to set up the tent. It’s everywhere. It’s...” Something occurred to me, and I looked back at Angel with interest. “Try to leech it.”
Angel raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms at my use of the word. “Leech it? Leech what?”
I shrugged and my eyes wandered to the trees around us. “It’s everywhere, and it’s at least as much as any typical witch would have. Try to absorb it. I want to see what happens.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You want to see what happens. Could this kill me?”
I pursed my lips in consideration.
“That’s what I thought,” Angel replied.
I shrugged. “Or, it might give you superpowers. Just like in the comic books.”
“Unbelievable.” She walked away.
Nick stood and called after her. “Don’t go too far!”
Angel gave him a wave before she disappeared into the trees. I went over to sit by Nick.
Night came on early and slow surrounded by the tall evergreens, and he was already setting up a fire for when darkness fell.
He said something as he stoked another log into the fire and looked at me expectantly. Embarrassed, I got up and moved closer.
“Sorry.” I gestured to my ear. “It’s just loud here.”
His lips curled into a small smile. “That’s ironic. This is the most peaceful place I’ve been in a while. I was just asking if you wanted to take the first shift sleeping. I’d rather not have both you and Angel sleeping whenever Millie decides to make her move.”
I pushed my hair back behind my ears. “I’ll sleep. I think I slept a little in the car...”
“Liar.”
I pursed my lips and nodded. “Right.”
Nick went back to watching the fire. Even if it was loud, he was right that it was peaceful. Enveloped in the background noise of so much raw, wild magic, it felt like we were the only two people in the world. Alone in our own pocket of reality.
“You never really answered me,” he said, looking over frankly. “What did you give Jacks for the information on Grift?”
I frowned. The peace was done. “I’m sorry. I just had to know.”
“I forgive you.” He turned to face me better. “I did my own research behind your back. I understand why you did it. I just need to know what you gave him. He doesn’t do business without a trade.”
I bit my lip. “I didn’t give him anything. Not yet.”
Nick tilted his head, looking serious.
“He wanted a favor. Something he would ask for in the future.” I hesitated. “Based on the fact that I do handler work. With you.”
Nick’s hazel eyes searched my face in the fading light.
“That’s everything,” I said. “No lies. I promise.”
His subtle smile returned. “I’ll take care of it.”
As nice as that would have been, it whispered at the forbidden for me. “I can take care of it myself. Tell me what to do.”
He smirked. “You say it like it’s that easy. Do you know yourself?”
“I can take care of myself,” I scoffed.
“Apparently.”
“And I’m pretty sure I’ve saved your ass more often than you’ve saved mine.”
“If we’re keeping score, then let me take care of Jacks for you. It’ll even things out.”
I lifted my chin. “You really don’t want me around him.”