But I wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge. At least, I wasn’t anymore. So, I threw my door open and met the other two in front of the truck. Lucky for us, no one was looking for the three men who were in the vehicle originally. Apparently, Stefan didn’t care much where his men were or what they did. As long as they showed up when it counted.
“What about Roe?” Mac asked, quietly.
“The bonds are holding. He won’t dare give us over,” she said, just as hushed. She put a hand to her cloak. “I wish I could use this to hide myself still.”
“You could do that?” Mac seemed surprised. I went the other direction.
“Why don’t you try?” I suggested.
She blinked up at me. “I don’t think I can make it work on myself anymore. I need my elements.” She chewed her bottom lip some more, and I waited.
Mac frowned. “I think we should stay together.”
“Three is harder to hide than one,” Pam pointed out, frowning, considering her options. Her frown turned into a gasp.
“Oka’s trapped.”
Mac nodded. “I feel it too.”
Weirdly enough, so did I. But that was the power of suggestion for you.
Pam swallowed hard and she shook her head. “I wonder if I could make it work on you. Then you could get Oka.” She slipped the cloak off, and draped it around me. It was a bit small, but it would do the trick. Or so I hoped.
“If you can’t work it on yourself, why do you think you could hide Alex with it?” Mac asked.
She bit her lower lip again and held a hand out and placed it on my cheek, catching me off guard. When I would have pulled away from her, she shook her head. “Just, let me see.”
See what?
Her eyes fluttered open, blue as ever, after a few moments.
“He’s been through the Veil. You said it yourself, didn’t you, Alex? You have more talents now. And even some magic of your own. Latent, buried, but it’s there. Maybe some genetic component.”
Well, shit, looked like my asshole father was good for something after all. An incubus, he was . . . not a nice man, to say the least. But he had magic, and apparently that was enough to help Pam do this invisibility trick.
She looked to Mac. “If I can channel that, I might be able to hide him for a minute. Maybe two. Depends on how much magic he gained coming through the Veil.”
I wasn’t going to correct her on where it came from. That was a story for another day.
“It’s risky,” Mac said.
Pam looked at me. “It’s up to Alex.”
“That cat is going to owe me,” I said.
“Thank you,” Pam whispered. I winked at her.
“Any time.”
She could do this. I had no doubt in her abilities, even if she did. If there was a way to save our asses, Pam would find it.
I peeked around the truck. There was a slow rotation of guards. All with rifles slung across their backs, paying no mind to us or the trucks. It would be easy to blend in, find Oka, and get out. But carrying enough food for the caravan. That would be the difficult part. Maybe we could steal the truck we’d driven in. We had the keys, after—
Pam cut my train of thought short. “Alex, you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Okay. This might feel . . . funny,” she warned as she closed her eyes.
At first, nothing happened. I pulled the cloak out and shook it a little, hoping to prod it into action. Still nothing. Minutes passed, and so did Stefan’s goons, totally unaware we were there, or maybe they just didn’t know we weren’t supposed to be there. Either way, I could feel our luck running out.
Sweat beaded along the hairline on Pam’s forehead, and Mac touched her shoulder. She visibly relaxed at his touch, and I was reminded again how well they went together. As I drew her cloak around me, though, I knew she still needed me. I still had a place in her life. For now.
I scratched absently at my arm as I watched her, her brow furrowed, making deep lines in her forehead. Lines I knew hadn’t been there a few years ago. Not even when I’d glimpsed her from the Veil.
The itch spread and soon I was scratching at my stomach. “Pam?” I asked, wondering if I was having some kind of allergic reaction to her cloak.
She didn’t open her eyes. Instead Mac looked at me. “Holy shit. Go man. Go,” he whisper-hissed at me.
I looked down at myself and I seemed . . . thin. Like a shadow. I held out my hand, under the cloak, and I could see it, but I wanted to look away.
“Go, Alex. I don’t know how long I can hold it,” Pammy said through gritted teeth. I didn’t need to be told twice. Make that three times.
I took off cautiously, at first. I knew I should’ve been running, but if I was spotted, running wasn’t terribly inconspicuous. And it churned up a lot of dust. That was bound to be noticed.
I glanced back at the row of trucks and couldn’t see Mac or Pammy. I said a silent prayer they would go unnoticed while I poked around looking for the cat. Goddess knew what would happen if they got caught while I was off somewhere else.
As I came around the corner, I felt like we’d been fooled once more by Roe. The inside of this place looked the same as the outside. The ground was dry and rocky, trees were nonexistent. As if they’d cleared them to make the compound. Roe had lied to us. There wasn’t any food in here.
I hurried toward a big warehouse-looking thing, wondering if that was where they kept all their ammo and guns. Maybe we could load up there too. A double hit on the shopping day. Mind you, there was no food.
I sniffed the air, trying to get a bead on Oka, but got nothing.
Where are you, sassy cat?
The building was gray on the outside, metal almost, and stretched high enough that I had to squint when I looked up at it. It seemed like overkill to me.
I tried the door, but of course, it was locked. All the things I’d learned in my time on this side of the Veil, picking locks wasn’t one of them. There just weren’t that many locks left in the world. I walked a little bit, hoping I’d find another door, when someone came out.
I turned and hurried back as quietly as I could.
“Find that fucking cat,” Stefan’s voice echoed through the door.
“Yes, sir,” the man said less than enthusiastically.
Cat. Oka. She must’ve gotten away from them, sly minx. I smiled thinking of her besting those big men with their guns. She’d get the last word yet, if she had her way.
Pam had been worried for nothing. But then I had time to snoop, to find what we were looking for.
The door opened toward me, and I grabbed the handle, and hoping he didn’t notice. He walked away, and I slipped inside, letting the door slam behind me.
I cringed and waited to be discovered. But no one looked up.
The sound of machinery caught my attention, but what stopped me dead in my tracks was the low moo of a cow. An actual, four-legged, milk-making, grass-eating, cow.
I shook my head. I couldn’t have heard that right. My mind was playing tricks on me. Or maybe it was Pam’s magic. But before I could talk myself out of it completely, the sound rang out again. A moo as clear as I stood there. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best analogy, because I wasn’t really standing there very clearly.
I followed the sound, and the warehouse opened up impossibly. The sun shone through, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing . . . what was laid out in front of me.
But the shock and wonder that rode through me shattered when a scream ripped through my mind.
Pamela.
Pain shot through me like I’d never felt before, as though pieces of me were being pulled apart.
Like being stabbed wherever the cloak touched, and I cringed away from it, unable to get my fingers to work enough to untie the laces at my throat.
I crumpled over, and the pain eased off. I let out a slow breath. What was that about? Was Pam hurt? I turned my head, somehow knowing she was in pain, if not mortally woun
ded.
And I also realized one other very important fact.
I was visible.
“Hey,” a man shouted.
“Get him,” another one yelled.
Shitty, shitty, shit, shits.
24
Pamela
I battled through the pain as it clawed at my innards. Weaving spirit this heavily was beyond hard; it drained me faster than ever before as I used it to control the magic in my blood.
Blood magic versus the magic of my heart.
Which was I? Who was I?
Was I a child of an elemental, or a child of a death witch?
My chest shuddered as I sucked in a hard-won breath.
“You’ve got this,” Mac whispered. “You are more than you realize, Pam. That’s why Faris sent me to you. He knew you had something special in you, and he was right.”
A tear slipped from under one clenched eyelid.
I will take you over soon. You will not fight me any longer.
The words were like a shot of energy through me. “You will not!” I snarled.
I’d battled the magic before, fought for control before, but this time was different. While I reached for what little connection to spirit I had, to keep my best friend safe, I fought to hang onto it, to use it in order to control the darkness. A pinprick of pale pink light against a universe of death.
I pulled hard on spirit, dragging it through the crack in the bracelet. Pain crackled along my wrist, and behind my eyelids, the elemental who’d bound my connection appeared before me. Nothing but him and me, no sense of place, just emptiness around us.
Mac’s hand settled on my shoulder, but when I looked for it, it wasn’t there. Still, I drew strength from him and turned to face the elemental head on.
Lines of pink stretched out toward me and snaked around my wrist, the bracelet growing tighter and digging sharply into my skin.
I couldn’t fight him magic to magic, not when I was holding the cover on Alex.
That left me one choice. I had to cut him down. Magic might be my wheelhouse, but no one was immune to a knife. Rylee taught me that.
I crooked a finger, beckoning him forward. “All right, asshole. You want my blood? Come get it.”
He laughed and rolled his eyes at me. “We don’t want your blood. We want your magic, witch.”
“You can’t have it,” I said. “Not anymore.”
“I beg to differ. We already do.” His sly smile boiled my blood and my dark magic roared to life, calling to me.
Embrace the darkness, let us be together and you could be free. You could hide Alex easily, and wipe this arrogant one off the face of the earth.
“You are not my mother,” I said through gritted teeth. The elemental lifted an eyebrow.
“Are you talking to yourself?”
I pushed the magic down and shook my head. “Talking to my magic. It’s a right bitch some days.”
I took a few steps toward him, fully expecting him to back up, surprised when he didn’t. “You know, I feel bad killing you without even knowing your name.”
He laughed and made a fist that he brought up to his chin, as if he was trying to be the Thinker or something. But as he squeezed, the pain in my wrist grew more difficult to ignore. I looked down and a stream of blood trickled out from behind the cracked bracelet.
“You won’t win this,” I said.
He laughed again. “Again, I already have. You are bound, your power feeds into me.”
I made myself smile through the pain. “Except for the crack in the bracelet.”
His brow furrowed. “Yes, I should fix that.”
He lifted his other hand to his face, and I knew it would be another shock of pain.
“Not today,” I said and launched toward him, running flat out. His eyes widened and he tried to step out of my way but I moved with him.
I tackled him to the ground, and he bounced underneath me. I scrambled to get on top of him, and he rolled, pinning me on my back.
But he wasn’t trying to kill me, and that gave me a leg up. His one hand went for my wrist with the bracelet on it, and I snapped it up in a fist to his chin.
He didn’t go down, but I did stun him, and it was enough for me to get out from under him.
How to free myself from the bracelet though? “Do I have to kill you to get the bracelet off?”
His head whipped around, a snarl on his lips.
“I will, if that’s the only option.” I had him on his belly, and that’s when spirit moved over me. Not me using it, but him.
A desire to lie down, to give in, and let him win rolled through me. To let him be my master.
No! I will bow to no one!
The darkness flared and consumed me whole, whatever hold I had on it gone. I watched my hand take his and twist it, palm up. With my finger, I made a slashing motion and a wound split as though it were a knife and not a nail.
He snarled and jerked as I smeared his blood on the bracelet that he’d bound me to. “Blood to stone, this binding shall be no more.” The words were not my own. Nothing about this was me.
The bracelet began to glow under the red of his blood, humming and shaking, the heat intensifying to the point that I could hold him no longer.
I screamed as I came out of the vision, my wrist on fire and my body barely able to stand. Too much, it had been too much.
I wanted to give Alex a warning as my connection to the spell dissolved.
I opened my eyes and took quick stock of my situation. Mac held me tightly with his hand over my mouth. I blinked against the bright sun and knew Alex was in trouble. Oka had escaped whatever trap she’d been in, and Alex was the one who needed us now.
“Alex. They have him.”
No sooner was it out of my mouth when shouting echoed around us. A scuffle followed, and I tried to sit up, but Mac held me. I looked down to see his finger hooked under one of my bracelets. The pink one. The one that had dug itself deeply into my wrist. And now was sheared in half.
“I thought it was going to cut your hand off. It got tighter and tighter, and there was nothing I could do . . .”
The desperation in his voice cut into my heart. I threw my arms around him as I worked the bracelet off fully. “You were there. I felt you with me.”
Gunshots cut the air, and I scrambled to my feet. But Mac pulled me down. “We can’t help him if we get caught.”
“We won’t get caught, not now.” I stood and my full connection to spirit was there, humming along through my body as pure and clean as my first gulp of water after a drought.
“Holy shit.” Mac stood. “Faris wasn’t kidding. I can feel how strong your connection is to spirit.”
I nodded. “Let’s get Alex and Oka and get the fuck out of here.”
For the first time in how long, I didn’t know, I was beyond hopeful.
I was strong.
You’re welcome, the darkness whispered, subdued. Broken.
I smiled. “Self-serving, but I’ll take it.”
Mac cocked an eyebrow. “I doubt they’ll kill Alex if that’s what you’re worried about. They’ll keep him alive to use as bait to get to you.”
He was right. “And what will they do to him until they get to me?”
I looked at him, and he looked right back at me, his gaze never wavering. “I don’t know. But I know he wouldn’t want you worrying about him. He’s probably more worried about you than you are about him. Let’s focus on the best way to get Oka and him and get the hell out of here.”
Footsteps crunched in the dirt out in front of the truck and we both ducked lower. Cautiously, I peered around the truck. There was Stefan, holding my cloak like it was a filthy rag. Sure, it was dirty but not that bad.
I wove spirit quickly, driving it into his head as fast as I could. He stumbled, his eyes going blank as I stood.
“Tell your men to all go to the front of the wall. And stay there,” I said softly.
He shook his head and tried to turn my way. The
re was a sensation of something sliding through his mind, something sinuous and covered in scales. My first thought was Madeline.
“The Sorceress,” I said.
I pressed spirit harder on Stefan. If I broke his mind, so be it.
Something clicked and the sinuous shape faded.
“Men!” Stefan shouted, his voice booming. “To the front of the wall. All of you!”
“And you too,” I said.
He bobbed his head and turned around. “Leave the cloak,” I added.
Stefan dropped the cloak and walked away. His men went with him, and those I could see shared looks of uncertainty. I didn’t care. They were out of the way.
That was all we needed.
As the men disappeared, Mac grabbed hold of my hand and dragged me into the open. I scooped up my cloak as we went and tied it on. That was better. And I could hide us now if we needed it. We crouched low as we crossed the open area and approached a huge gray building in the distance.
“Do you think that’s where he went?” Mac asked.
I could feel Alex on the other side. “Yes, I’m sure of it.”
Mac gave me a look but said nothing else.
We crossed the compound as quickly and silently as we could and flattened ourselves against the side of the building. Even though Stefan had given the order, I knew that I couldn’t hold all the men in check at once. I wasn’t that strong, and it would only take one stray bullet to kill me or one of my familiars.
The wall was cool against my skin.
Mac tried the door, but it was locked. He moved to keep going, but I stopped. It had been awhile since I’d picked a lock, but I knew it would come back to me. It was like riding a bike. Right?
I searched my pockets for something to work with but came up empty. I couldn’t pick the locks with my fingernails, which were horribly short and dirty. I didn’t wear pins in my hair; they were a luxury lost to the time before.
“What are you doing?” Mac asked. “Let’s just try another door.”
I blinked at him. “Mac. All the doors are going to be locked. This is the closest one, and probably the one Alex went in. I need to find something to pick the lock with.”
I bent down and felt around on the ground, but it was just dirt and rocks. While I would never complain about the fact that I had control of spirit once more, in that moment, I rather wished it was one of the elements that could have helped to open the damn door.
Caravan Witch (Questing Witch Book 2) Page 23