Forbidden Alchemy (Elemental Book 7)

by Rain Oxford

  “Sleep is boring.”

  “Be that as it may, I have to get to work.” I left shortly afterwards, grabbed some fast food, returned to the motel, took a shower, and ate. I was watching the local news for anything odd when the world suddenly faded.

  * * *

  Flames illuminated the room, but the shadow people were ominous. This time, the room was larger, and there were more flaming red sigils. Instead of shadows of fire on the wall, I saw the shadows of seven people. Some were small enough to be four or five, some were older teenagers.

  Once again, I wasn’t alone; the boy was here. His Batman pajamas were covered in soot, but the fire wasn’t hot. Strangely, the fire felt more real than the previous time. The boy was hugging his knees to his chest and his face was hidden against them. Since he didn’t appear to be hurt, I tried to find a way out. There were no doors, windows, or hidden passageways that I could see.

  Above the crackles of the fire, I heard whispers and sobs. My focus was drawn back to the boy, though. I crouched in front of him. Maybe he knows why we’re here, or where we are. “Are you hurt? Where are we?” He didn’t respond, so I touched his arm. He whined loudly and jerked away. “I’m not going to hurt you.” I reached for him again. His head shot up.

  “Stop! It hurts!”

  “What hurts?”

  Fire whipped around and I barely blocked my face in time. It burned my hand instantly. I reached out for the boy with my other arm to try to protect him, but he was gone.

  * * *

  I woke soaked in sweat. I hadn’t had an uncontrolled vision when I was conscious for over a year. Once my heartbeat started to slow, I reached for the leather sack around my neck and winced. Only then did I spot the severe burn over my right forearm.

  My ring was still in its pouch. My intuition was the first of my powers to develop, and it was my best-developed. If I needed to have a vision, my intuition would push me to put on my ring. I wondered if the children from the vision were somehow calling me.

  I only knew how to find one of them, though. My uncle was right; he had a disadvantage in finding humans because of his inability to use computers. I, on the other hand, was trained to find people. Social media was an excellent tool.

  I used my phone to search for Chris Williams in Siloam Springs. Fortunately, she was a teacher at the middle school, so her picture was on the website. Using that, I could find her. I hoped it was the same Christina Williams, anyway. The problem was I didn’t have time to drive to Arkansas and stay here to protect the coven.

  I reached out with my magic over the great distance to Dorian. He appeared a few seconds later. Remy’s familiar was a young, tall, well-built cat with medium-length, blue-gray fur. “You called?” he asked. He could easily have been ten years old, but because he was a familiar, he was barely out of adolescence.

  “How good are you at popping around and picking up things?”

  “My powers only started developing once Remington called me. I will do my best to help, though. What do you need?”

  I sent a mental image of the woman. “Can you find this woman and make sure that she and her daughter are safe? Her daughter’s name is Tazmyn, but I don’t know what she looks like.”

  “I can do that, but why can’t your own familiar?”

  “She’s busy. I might send her there in a few days, though. I won’t ask you to stay there, just to check on her. Then, I suggest you guard your master.”

  “I have no interest in having my face eaten off for trying to guard Remington Hunt against her wishes.” With that, he vanished.

  I felt bad for them both. Remington took over the children’s school to get her independence. Her ex-boyfriend had a permanent mental bond with her father. I could see why she didn’t like having Dorian always watching over her. However, Dorian never did anything but try to help her, and if she died, so would he. Neither of them had a choice.

  I called the wizard council and asked for Becky. They used wired phones, since most of them couldn’t keep cell phones running. However, as Darwin told me often, it was easy to tap. I was fortunate that I only fried my cell phones when I got pissed off.

  “Hello, Devon,” Becky said when she answered the phone.

  “Hi.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be at the school? Where are you?”

  “On the phone. How are things in the executive office?”

  She laughed. “Running much better now that my father’s out of it.”

  “Surely you’re keeping him on as a moral consultant.” I paused for her to make a face. “Anyway, I was wondering if you knew about any missing wizard kids.”

  “No, I haven’t. Why?”

  “I’m not sure yet. Please let me know if anything weird happens involving wizard kids.”

  “I can do that.”

  * * *

  All of the vampires who worked at Drake’s club lived at the Gardens, so I parked outside the apartment complex. I couldn’t watch all of the staff members, but most of them lived there because of its location and paranormal-friendly environment.

  Shortly after nine in the morning, I felt Rocky’s presence move to the front of my mind. “Humans have arrived.”

  “Okay. Stay and watch them, but don’t interfere or reveal yourself unless someone’s life is in danger. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

  I started up the car and returned to the coven in record time. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, I parked on the side of the road and walked onto the grounds from the forest. I muted my phone and drew my gun.

  I spotted the wolf shifters first and then the hunters. There were six wolves, all indistinguishable from natural wolves. They were silent, cunning, and deadly. Their major weakness was silver, but they weren’t as affected by it as vampires.

  There were four familiar Jeeps. The last time I fought hunters, their camouflaged jeeps seemed useless for hunting vampires because of their superior vision. However, since their vision wasn’t all that superior, I realized the humans knew more than I did. Despite two of my best friends being vampires, I hadn’t known. A regular vehicle would stick out in the woods to a vampire even if it wasn’t moving. A camouflaged one, on the other hand, stood a good chance of going unnoticed if it was still.

  Each Jeep held two hunters. Although it was the same organization I had faced before, these were different people. I wished I had followed up with them before, but I thought I had stopped them for good. If it weren’t for someone feeding them information, they probably wouldn’t have been able to come back.

  It was not as easy for them to hide from the shifters, though. What stopped the wolves from tearing the humans out of the vehicles was probably the silver netting draped over them. It could also have been the guns that were aimed at them. Four of the humans were brave enough to get out of the Jeeps. Two of them casually scribbled notes on their clipboards after studying the mansion, land, and shifters, while the other two covered them. The wolves stayed back from the guns, so I suspected that the bullets were silver.

  Despite the calmness the humans showed, I had no doubt they would be burning down the mansion if it weren’t for the shifters. My intuition warned me that this was an elaborate trap, not for the wolves or me but for the coven members. At the same time, three of the wolves noticed me and stepped away from the hunters. In their minds, reinforcements had arrived.

  Unfortunately, that was the reaction the hunters had been waiting for; the rest got out of their vehicles and surrounded the pack. The wolves could easily kill them, except the hunters had guns, knives, and silver nets. One of them had a catcher pole and a whip.

  Paranormals could usually sense me in their minds, but humans normally didn’t unless I wanted them to. Thus, it was easy to delve into their unprotected minds. I wanted to find out who was in charge of them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy, because it left me vulnerable while they carried on unhindered.

  While I was busy trying to skim their minds without being detected, they were he
rding the wolves into a crowd and agitating them intentionally. It was difficult to filter through the hunters’ minds because they were so full of hate and anger. They all had their reasons for hating vampires, but that wasn’t my concern.

  One of the shifters broke away from the group on instinct and my intuition forced me to take action. They intended to separate one from the pack, and they had her pinned to the stone wall of the mansion. Her pack mates couldn’t break free to help her. Her options were to run into the silver net to her left, get shot by the human behind her, or get caught by the human with a catchpole in front of her. She whimpered and her pack mates snapped. One of them bit through the arm of the closest human and got shot in the leg for his efforts. He howled with pain, but the damage was done; the human was in the middle of the pack and the wolves were mauling him. The humans were about to start shooting.

  I unleashed my magic into all of them. “Stop!” Everyone froze except the wolf who had been separated. That wolf ran to the wolf who had been shot and whimpered. I extracted my power from the wolves’ minds slowly as I emerged from the forest. I didn’t want the wolves killing the hunters in case they had the answers we needed.

  The wolves broke away from the immobilized humans and shifted. The one who had been shot was the largest man in the pack and the fastest to shift. His arm bled profusely and he swayed unsteadily on his feet, but he put his arms around the woman who had been separated. “You’re hurt,” she said, her voice strained. The man stepped back and used sign language.

  That was why she hadn’t stopped; she hadn’t heard my command.

  They argued silently for a moment before she picked up the gun and aimed it at the human who had shot her man. I invaded her mind gently and gave her the command mentally. This time, she froze. I felt her shock as she heard someone’s voice for the first time. When I released her, she dropped the gun and turned to me. The man grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him.

  “Relax,” Jasko said. He was one of the three shifters in the group that I knew. He was slightly above average height with lean muscles. Of course, most shifters were built like athletes. “This is Devon. He’s good.” As he spoke, he signed to the woman. “Devon, this is Karman, her husband Mark, and---”

  “I’m Orlando,” the third wolf I didn’t know said quickly. “This was my first time on guard duty.” Then he frowned and blushed, realizing it hadn’t gone well.

  Jasko patted his shoulder. “At least you didn’t get shot like your idiot brother.” He didn’t sign that, probably because he didn’t want Karman sinking her fangs in his throat. Mark growled.

  Maseré’s pack included hundreds of shifters with different jobs and ranking in the pack. It was a very complex system. Jasko was a police officer, as was his sister Isabelle, who wasn’t any more bothered about being naked in front of strangers than the hearing-impaired woman beside her. In fact, I had never seen an adult shifter bat an eye over public nudity. Ren, whose mother was human, covered himself politely when he saw me trying to look anywhere but at the women.

  “Chill,” Isabelle said. “We’ve got to focus on the hunters.”

  I was already tuning them out to skim the minds of the humans. They all had reasons for their hate, but I was looking for a person behind them. It didn’t take long to discover that none of them were high enough in their operation to know who was actually behind it. However, I did narrow in on the leader of this hit.

  He was in the background, not willing to get hurt with his comrades. He had received orders that they were to scope out the mansion for a spot to set some bombs. Their secondary mission was to capture a shifter to dissect.

  I skimmed his mind, retracing the drive in his memory. It was scattered and clouded with his mental rants of anger and pride. His adult daughter married a vampire and refused to leave him. Although the vampire never hurt her, her father couldn’t stand it.

  Finally, I saw a large farmhouse in the middle of the woods. There were dogs trained to bark at paranormals and guards at the door who vetted anyone who entered, even known hunters, with silver and a metal wand that detected magic. There were silver bars on the windows and silver dust traps everywhere to stop a vampire. There were also sensors all over the forest surrounding it.

  This was definitely the new base of the hunters.

  Chapter 4

  The wolves had backpacks of clothes and supplies, so they dressed and cuffed the hunters while I held them subdued. Isabelle was flirty at first, but she settled down when her brother reminded her that this was a serious matter.

  I was surprised when my phone rang until I saw that it was Maseré. “Hello.”

  “Hello, Devon. I called the school and was told you’re in the city.”

  “Yeah… I’m at Stephen’s coven. Darwin is still at the school, though. Do you want me to get a message to him?”

  “No, it’s you I need. It might be a strange case for you if you’re willing to take it. Another pack has stolen four of my pups.”

  “Wait, wait. You mean pack pups, right? Not… your own pups? Darwin doesn’t have any siblings.”

  “Right. Pack pups. You have to understand, pack pups belong to everyone in the pack. We’re all family. This is a personal attack.”

  “I understand. I’m starting to feel that way about the children at the school. I don’t understand what the problem is, though. Why haven’t you killed them?”

  “This is the strange part… I’m not certain it was the other pack.” When he paused, I waited. “The evidence is staggering. Their scent is all over the scene of the abduction, as was a dagger with their alpha’s name engraved on it, and a strip of torn cloth with the blood of another member of their pack.”

  “Is it that Canadian pack that attacked Stephen’s coven? The one you call ‘Canada’ because the alpha keeps changing?”

  “Yes. The current alpha is Jordan Wilson, who killed his nephew to take the position a month ago. They’re trying to invade my land. We tracked their scent back to a cabin just over their territorial line and got our pups back, but the culprits weren’t there. The only thing left to do is kill them for daring to hurt one of ours.”

  “It sounds pretty cut and dry.”

  “Suspiciously so. They aren’t stupid enough to think they could get away with it. If they were hiding their tracks, they would have taken a plane. They would have covered up their scent.”

  “So you think they were specifically trying to enrage you?”

  “Yes, which they’ve done before.”

  “But you don’t think that’s the case this time?”

  “They would have kept our pups hidden for ransom if they wanted to piss us off. I just find it strange. I could slaughter the entire pack in a day, but I don’t want to do so if there’s even a chance that there’s something more to the story. That’s where you come in.”

  “That’s smart.” It was surprising, too; I didn’t expect the most powerful wolf pack in North America to ask questions before attacking. Maybe someone else thought the same thing. “If you can crush Canada as easily as you say, I’m sure other packs know it as well. Is there anyone with a grudge against Canada?”

  “Sure. Despite my numbers, I don’t take more territory than I need, and I take it by bartering. Wilson’s pack is small and relies on feral, brutal wolf nature. They fight and steal for far more land than they need, and they’re not above stealing pups. The Great White North is full of wolf packs, and they all hate Wilson’s pack. If I killed Wilson’s pack, every pack in Canada would rejoice.”

  “But you’re better than that.”

  “Of course. I protect my pack, but I also have to set an example for my pups. If they are responsible, I’ll slaughter them in a heartbeat. However, I’d like you to do your cop thing and make sure first.”

  “I’ll do my thing, yeah.” I sighed. I needed to hunt down the leader of the hunters, but I also couldn’t expect Maseré to hold off on his revenge for long. I need a couple of partners. Maybe I shouldn’t have turned d
own Darwin and Henry. They were a great help in cases. “I’ll meet you at your place, but it’s going to take me a few hours. I’ve got to finish up with some hunters that have been attacking Stephen’s coven.”

  “Jasko is there now with five others. Do you need more backup?”

  “No, we’re good. This band of hunters is subdued. I was going to follow them back to their base, but I had to interfere. Fortunately, I got the location of their base from their minds. I was thinking of wiping their memories of us and letting them return home without suspicion so that I can attack at a later date.”

  “If you can be certain they won’t learn anything, then I’ll trust you to handle the case as you see fit.”

  I hesitated. “I don’t know how long my mind-control actually lasts. I know it’s not permanent because it wore off my ex. If you lock them up, they will be replaced and it might raise suspicion… or the hunters will just assume these eight were killed. Either way, they can’t report back. If I wipe their minds and it wears off, then it could cause more problems.”

  “Both are valid points.”

  Maseré still had Marcus’s murderous human father locked up, so I knew he was capable of containing humans. “I also have to get back to the school as soon as possible, so I can’t take any chances. We’ll lock them up and after we deal with Canada, I’ll check on the school. When I know they’re safe, I’ll come back and deal with the hunters for good.”

  “You need a partner.”

  “I know. Hang on… I’m not actually going to have to go to Canada, am I?”

  “I hope you have a passport.”

  I groaned, hung up with him, and told Jasko that I was going to the pack.

  “We’re heading back with the prisoners, so you can follow us.”

  “Sounds good.” I wish I’d brought Darwin.

  * * *

  We drove out of the city and into the forests. It was a long, cold drive with icy roads. I had time to wonder how Remy was doing and if she was comfortable. Then I thought about the school and my uncle’s warning. I was still a little surprised to see where I was in life. It hadn’t been three years since I stayed out of the paranormal community and despised vampires. Now here I was, helping shifters and vampires on the same day, all the while worrying about a paranormal school that I was partially responsible for.