When Chase deemed it safe to assume our target was heading for the highway, we pulled off onto a side street, making two quick left turns before pulling back out behind the Jetta. Following him on the highway was easy enough, and when he signaled and changed lanes for an upcoming exit, I noticed Karyn take a hand from the steering wheel to grab a pendant on a slim leather cord around her neck. She muttered a few words in German, then slipped the pendant back beneath her shirt.
“It’s a fairly weak charm, but it’ll hopefully keep him from noticing us,” she explained when she saw me staring. “He’ll be able to see us just fine, but we’ll be completely unremarkable. Every time he looks in his mirrors, it’ll be like he’s seeing this car for the first time. It won’t hold up to close inspection, but it’ll get us the last bit of the way to Montgomery’s lab.”
We only had to follow him for another five minutes before the Jetta pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript office building in a business mall beside the highway. Karyn cruised past and parked at the curb while we watched Montgomery’s mole retrieve his plastic case and head into the three story building.
“What now?” asked Chase. “Do we rush in with wands blazing?”
Karyn rolled her eyes at the wands comment, and I just dug my phone out of my pocket.
“First I make a phone call, then we start figuring out how to neutralize Montgomery before the sun comes up.”
Wishing I had any other option at all, I retrieved the number Quan had forwarded me, swallowing every last ounce of pride in order to dial Trey’s phone number.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Neon purple running lights were the first sign Trey’s anything but inconspicuous car was about to pull up beside us. Painted a custom shade of silver that sparkled beneath the streetlights, its windows sported a half dozen decals of what I could only guess were car part logos. A darkly tinted window sank down with a soft buzz, revealing the smug face of Johnny riding shotgun. He wore sporty looking black plastic sunglasses despite the late hour. It was only when he slid them down his nose to wink at me that I understood why.
Johnny was high as a kite. His pupils were so dilated they nearly engulfed his irises. The shit-eating grin on his face made me wonder if he had even the slightest idea of what kind of danger we were about to walk into. Trey leaned forward to smirk at me from the driver’s seat, looking just as tuned up as Johnny. It was only after thinking to view them through my mage sight that I realized they were both brimming with magical energy. More interesting, their smokey blue auras were nearly identical in substance to the ancient power radiating off of Trang.
“Hey Karyn,” said Johnny. “You’re looking sexy as ever. Wanna hop in our car for a bit of pre-game before we go fuck this bitch up?”
“Still haven’t learned any manners, have you?” asked Karyn, raw anger seething in her voice. “If I get into that car, it’s going to be to rip your dick off so I can feed it to you.”
“Rawr,” snarked Johnny. “I’d like to see you try.”
“That’s enough,” Trey said sternly. He put his hand on Johnny’s chest and pushed him back against the seat so he could see us without his idiot partner’s head in the way. “What’s the plan?”
The three of us had gone over our options several times before Trey and Johnny arrived. Although we’d tried to come up with some way to cut them out of the equation, we needed the extra magic muscle if we were going to stand a chance of besting Montgomery. Karyn had just enough gathered energy and mental strength left to get us into the building undetected, and I could potentially fight my way into the lab, but it would leave us with nothing for Montgomery herself. Chase had suggested we use Trey and Johnny like the mindless foot soldiers they were. I planned to take every advantage of their abilities until they had nothing left to fight back with when the dust had settled. There was no way I was letting them get away without paying for their misuse of power. I hadn’t exactly figured out what I was going to do with them, but that was a problem for later.
“Chase is going to stay back and warn us if cops or reinforcements show up,” I explained. “The rest of us will enter from the back of the building using the same trick you used to get into Trang’s warehouse. Once inside, we locate the quantum computer, get the parts Trang needs, then neutralize Montgomery.”
“Easy enough,” said Johnny. “Let’s get this party started.”
Johnny pulled his car into the spot ahead of ours and cut the engine. I hesitated a moment before getting out, turning back to check on Chase.
“You going to be okay here?” I asked.
He nodded, looking only slightly unhappy about being left behind.
“I get it,” he said. “I’m the only one in the group without magic. I’d be more of a liability than anything else.”
I shot him a smile then stepped out of the vehicle without another word. How could I tell him the main reason I didn’t want him in there with me is that I didn’t want him to see what I knew I had to do to Montgomery? Chase would understand if I had to take her out in self-defense, but I didn’t know if our friendship would survive him watching me murder her. Sure, he understood the parameters of my deal with Trang. Chase knew perfectly well that I couldn’t leave without killing Montgomery. Still, knowing a thing must happen and seeing it with your own eyes are two entirely different things. Chase had repeatedly told me he didn’t want me trying to protect him all the time, but I had to draw the line somewhere.
“Can I trust you to watch my back in there?” I asked Karyn discreetly while Johnny and Trey got out of their car.
She stared me down a minute, making me wonder if she’d been worried about exactly the same thing.
“I have no quarrel with you, Alex. We go in there and do what we have to do. Then we can go back to ignoring each other until you need help again.”
I couldn’t help but grin a little.
“Hey,” I said, gently nudging her in the ribs with my elbow. “You asked for my help the first time, remember?”
“Whatever,” she muttered, not turning away fast enough to hide her own smile.
“You two gonna fuck now?” Johnny asked as he and Trey joined us. “Cuz I’m down to watch if you’re too scared of what I got between my legs.”
“I am allergic to nuts, but that’s not enough to make me afraid of your peanut-sized dick,” snapped Karyn.
Trey laughed and Johnny scowled, but they fell in line behind us while we skirted the edge of the lot to get around back of the building. Skulking around like a thief wasn’t something I did on a regular basis. The others settled into a quiet professionalism so quickly I caught myself glancing back every few seconds to see if they were still there. Johnny may have been looking down at Karyn’s leather-clad ass the entire time, but he kept his mouth shut and showed no outward signs of being anything other than a committed team member. I reminded myself they were only in this as far as it served their own agenda. Trey and Johnny were not to be trusted, no matter what kind of temporary alliance we’d formed.
“The building is heavily warded,” I said to Karyn when we stopped in the shadow of a small alcove where the building’s trash bins were nestled. “Can you get us in without triggering them?”
She began withdrawing what remained of her casting paraphernalia from the small cloth bag she’d brought. “I’ll do my best, but no guarantees.”
Johnny fiddled with an unlit cigarette, nervously scanning the back lot. In contrast, Trey was cool and focused. He observed Karyn’s every move as she poured the last of her salt into a casting circle, his cold and calculating eyes taking in every nuance of movement. It was no wonder he’d been made leader of his motley little crew. I watched him move his hands ever so slightly, mimicking Karyn’s movements as though committing them to memory. It was a spell he already knew, one he’d used several times, but still he sought to perfect it. That was a dangerous sign. With the knowledge of the Craft he’d already been given, he could potentially become a deadly force over the next
few years.
I felt raw and foreign earth energy rise up within Karyn’s casting circle. I watched in awe as she worked a complex series of gestures while chanting almost inaudibly. Sharp consonants punctuated painful looking finger movements while she wove the energy into something magically tangible. I’d seen her work before, but never on this level. She seemed to be tearing through the very fabric of space itself in order to bypass Montgomery’s wards. Bit by bit, she built a tunnel of magic energy that slowly penetrated the outer wall of the building. The protective wards had been constructed in such a way that even my mage sight revealed very little of them until Karyn’s spell sliced into the outer level of concrete cinder blocks. It was then I realized she’d matched the structure of her material phase spell to the signature of Montgomery’s wards. It was exponentially more complex than what Trey would have done to get into Trang’s warehouse, and I knew as soon as I saw it that Chase and I would never have stood a chance at getting into the building without her.
“Quickly,” Karyn said, her voice strained and hollow. “Don’t touch the edges.”
She stepped into the shimmering oval aperture that now opened into a hallway inside the building. I didn’t know what would happen if I touched the wall of the spell, but I hunched my shoulders and ducked low as I stepped over the threshold, lest I brush up against the glowing edges of the neatly bisected outer wall.
Trey came through behind me, followed a split second later by Johnny. The portal snapped shut immediately afterward, shrinking to a pinpoint before disappearing entirely.
“You okay?” I asked Karyn.
She was leaning against the far wall, chin hanging low while she fought for breath. She could only nod in response, holding up her index finger to indicate she’d need a minute to recover from the effort.
Wishing I hadn’t lost Chase’s fancy earpiece, I plucked one of Karyn’s burner phones from where I’d tucked it into the waistband of my yoga pants. I sent the door and thumbs-up emojis to let Chase know we were in. His text response hit my phone seconds later, apologizing for not having had any luck finding useful plans for the building’s layout. It seemed we were going to have to find Montgomery and the computer on our own.
“I assume you know a few defensive spells that will incapacitate someone without killing them?” I asked Trey and Johnny.
“Dead people can’t hit alarms,” said Trey. “Better to use lethal force.”
As drawn and exhausted as she’d looked a second ago, Karyn’s face flushed red with anger. She pushed herself away from the wall and lunged for Trey. Fists wound up in his shirt collar, she shoved him back against the wall. Energy crackled around her like static in a dry room, sending an electric tingle through our skin that was enough to make Trey’s eyes widen in fear.
“The Craft is not meant to be used this way,” she said through clenched teeth. “I should fucking kill you right now. Everything you stand for is a betrayal of our ways.”
Johnny shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. He looked like he might make a move, but he was smart enough to hold back. I wouldn’t have put money on both of those morons against Karyn even as exhausted as she was. While a witch was limited by how much power they could channel from external sources, there were a hundred different ways someone like Karyn could store a few emergency spells. Even the small silver studs in her ears could hold enough of a charge to do some serious damage to Trey and Johnny before they had a chance to lay a finger on her.
Trey, showing impressive restraint, slowly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. He glared at Johnny, flashing a silent order to stand down.
“We still need them, Karyn,” I said, placing what I hoped was a calming hand on her shoulder.
Energy tickled my palms, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. A shiver ran through me, my skin suddenly crawling with goosebumps. I could feel Karyn’s emotion seeping into the spell, a sure sign she’d pushed herself too far.
The muscle on Karyn’s shoulder flexed. I tensed myself for the coming blast, instinctively drawing energy for a shield spell. The tension in the air hung as thick as ever, but Karyn loosened her grip on Trey’s shirt before backing away from him altogether. I held my energy at the ready, stepping between the two before Trey could think to retaliate.
“There will be a reckoning between us,” Karyn said with terrifying calmness. “Mark my words.”
Trey snorted air from his nose and jerked his head in a come-at-me gesture.
“Try it,” he said. “I’ve learned a few tricks since you saw me last. You might find I’m not so easy to knock down.”
“That’s enough,” I growled. “Do you two really want to be standing here arguing when one of Montgomery’s goons comes strolling around the corner? Set your shit aside. Remember why you’re here. Trang will kill all of us if we don’t finish this job tonight.”
“She’s right, Trey,” Johnny added. “Let’s just do this and get the fuck out of here.”
The electrical tension lingered in the air another moment before abruptly fading away. Karyn’s posture had relaxed ever so slightly, and she’d turned her body away from Trey in silent indication that she was ready to move on. Trey sneered at her, shaking his head and opening his mouth as though to taunt her for being the first to back off. A glare from me was enough for him to reverse course and shut his yap again.
“Let’s go,” I said, turning and march down the hall.
“Should we expect heavy resistance?” I asked Karyn when she caught up to me.
“Not much,” she replied. “Montgomery is extremely paranoid. Those two meatheads who follow her around all the time are each worth a dozen normal guards. Aside from them, I doubt she has more than a couple of backup mercenaries guarding the lab itself when she’s not there. Most of her security comes from never letting anyone see more of the picture than they’re a part of.”
There was little comfort in realizing what we’d have to face when we eventually crossed paths with Montgomery’s bodyguards, but it made searching the rest of the building a little easier knowing we weren’t likely to run into armed patrols every five minutes.
The building itself was just as unremarkable from the inside as it was from the street outside. Cheap fluorescent lights lined the hallway, lending a touch of green to the white walls. My shoes squeaked ever so slightly on the tile floor, and I remembered Karyn’s ridiculous stiletto-heeled boots. I glanced down to see if maybe she’d slipped out of them and saw her walking quite normally without the tell-tale click clack of boots on tile.
“Enchanted,” she said with a half grin. “Style and function.”
Once again smiling despite myself, I pushed on down the hallway. I peeked into a few doors as we passed by. Most of them were small offices or slightly larger meeting rooms. Every single one was empty. We’d chosen a good spot to make our entry, but it meant we’d have a fair bit of searching to do. At least we still seemed to have the element of surprise.
After exploring most of the ground floor and finding nothing, I pulled everyone into a large meeting room, my smile long since mutated into an annoyed grimace.
“This is taking too long,” I said. “I can’t see through these walls with my mage sight, and there’s no trace magic to follow. It’s nearly two o’clock. If we don’t find the lab soon, we’ll never make it back to Trang’s before sunrise.”
“We should look downstairs,” suggested Trey. “Gotta be some kind of magic dungeon in this place.”
I was loath to admit it had been my first thought as well. Magic users were drawn to underground spaces. Unless access to natural elements was required, it was easier to anchor spells beneath the surface of the earth. I didn’t understand exactly how it worked — something about the insulating properties of the natural earth magic. It was just one of those things worth knowing if you were in the habit of tracking down other magic users.
“Not Montgomery’s style,” said Karyn. “My guess is top floor.”
A quic
k text exchange with Chase told me he hadn’t learned anything new that would help us. He’d done a circuit of the block while waiting, and reported that not a single light burned in any of the windows. If something was happening in the building, it was likely being both magically and physically shielded. Short of a room by room search, there was little I could do to speed up the process. With the clock ticking down towards Trang’s deadline, I almost considered splitting our group up in order to make the search go more quickly. A quick glance at Trey and Johnny leering at us like vultures just outside the reach of a dying gazelle was enough to change my mind. I couldn’t trust either of them enough to let them out of my sight.
“There’s something I can try,” said Karyn. “I think it will work, but I’ll need your help.”
I looked into her eyes and hoped what I saw there was some vestige of the short-lived friendship we’d once shared. Even after our unpleasant parting of the ways, things had never been truly bad between us. In fact, until overhearing her betrayal with Montgomery, I’d have said we were the kind of friends who pretended to be enemies. That was just our dynamic. I’d gone to her in the first place because I’d thought I could trust her, but now I had no way of knowing whether or not she was truly on our side. Not for a second had I let go of the fear she might be leading us into a trap.
“What’s your idea?” I asked.
“Sit on the ground,” she said. “Hands on knees. One palm up, one palm down.”
I did as she asked. Karyn settled down opposite me, mirroring my position. She slipped her hands into mine, her skin cool and dry against my clammy palms. My chagrin over the state of my sweaty skin faded quickly as a light frisson of energy manifested between us. I felt my eyes flare wide, and I resisted the urge to yank my hands back. I had no idea how she was doing it, but Karyn had managed to draw the thinnest trickle of magic from my body into hers. Without consent, this would be grounds for immediate execution if the Conclave were ever to learn of it. Only the look of determined focus in Karyn’s eyes prevented me from breaking the bond.
Black Market (Black Records Book 2) Page 26