SPELL TO UNBIND, A

by Laurie, Victoria

  Dex’s brow came back to neutral again. “Right. Forgot about that. Well, that should do the trick because, I mean, Big Doodle and the twins didn’t even twitch when I held that thing.”

  I laughed. Big Doodle and the twins were Dex’s nickname for his … well, you know.

  Placing my hands firmly on his upper arms, I sang, “Say hi to Ursula for me.”

  He chuckled. “Pass. She’s so jealous of you, she’s likely not to help us if I do.”

  I chuckled. Ursula and I were fine whenever Dex wasn’t in the picture.

  Dex pointed to Gideon. “What do you want to do with him?”

  “Leave him. We’ll just let the serpent and staff trinket work its magic, and hope that it heals him sooner rather than later.”

  Dex eyed our houseguest suspiciously. “I know he’s your protégé now, Ezzy, but he feels like trouble to me. Mark my words, he’ll land us both in hot water if we’re not careful.”

  I patted him on the arm and offered him a mocking grin. “There’s that enthusiasm that I know and love. Now go find Ursula and call me the minute she’s through translating the book.”

  Dex shook his head but didn’t protest as he turned and left the room. I waited until I heard the roar of his Mustang pulling out of the drive before I moved over to Kincaid and began to search his pockets. He was still quite hot and unconscious, which was worrisome.

  After checking all the pockets in his jacket and the front of his jeans, I rolled him carefully onto his side and found what I was looking for. “Bingo,” I said, tugging his cell out of his back pocket.

  Turning the screen to his face, I managed to easily unlock his phone and was scrolling through his contacts when the screen lit up with an incoming call from someone named Trish.

  There was a photo attached to the caller ID, and I stared at the lovely face of a pale woman with brilliant blue eyes, long white-blond hair, and a smile as sweet as an angel.

  She stared into the lens of the camera with such a look of trust, and my gaze darted to Kincaid on the couch for a moment as a pang of something hot and unwelcome flashed in my belly.

  I shook my head and looked back toward the phone, unsure where the sudden jolt of jealousy had come from. I had no romantic feelings for Kincaid, but the second this beautiful woman showed up on his phone, I was feeling all those terrible insecurities that came with every relationship I’d ever been scorned from.

  It was so weird. Especially since I’d never experienced a single moment of jealousy where Dex was concerned. So why was I having a reaction to this Trish woman now?

  The phone stopped ringing then, and a few moments later a text came in from the same number.

  Gid, are you planning on working late tonight? Need to know about dinner. Call home soon, okay?

  I frowned and looked again at Kincaid. “So, Trish is Mrs. Kincaid, huh?”

  I tapped my finger against the side of the phone, unsure what to do with the text message. Should I leave it alone or respond? It was clear to me that Kincaid wasn’t going anywhere for at least several more hours, maybe even days, and I didn’t want the missus to start calling around trying to find her husband, so I decided to take the risk and respond.

  “Sorry,” I said, tapping out the word as I spoke. “Working late on a case here. Can’t talk. Will call when I can.” I then scrolled up to see how Kincaid usually signed off with his wife, and saw a few texts where he ended with “L U.”

  “Blech,” I muttered. “The man can’t even spell out the word love? Or send a heart emoji? Lame.”

  Still, I didn’t want to break the pattern, so that’s how I ended the text before sending it.

  Once that was done, I went back to Kincaid’s contacts and found who I was looking for, then placed the call.

  It was picked up on the fourth ring. “Gideon?” came the wary greeting. “This is a surprise.”

  “No, it’s Esmé. Your brother is critically injured. You need to come to the warehouse.”

  There was a long pause, then, “Why aren’t you loaning him whatever trinket healed you last night?”

  My gaze went to Ember and I had to think fast. “Because I sold it to you.”

  “The crystal?”

  “Yep.”

  There was another pause, and I could tell Finn was suspicious of the call. “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”

  I turned the phone toward Kincaid and snapped his picture, then I texted it to Finn before putting the phone back to my ear again. “Satisfied?”

  “On my way.”

  The line disconnected and all I could do was wait.

  Finn arrived ten minutes later, and he brought the useless “healing” crystal with him. “Where is he?” he asked as soon as I opened the door.

  “On the couch,” I replied, drinking in the sight of him.

  He breezed past me and I could feel the charm around my neck heat right up, but fortunately I didn’t feel compelled to strip naked and throw myself at him.

  I’d take my victories where I could.

  I tucked the serpent and staff trinket into my jacket pocket after having just taken it from Gideon, then I followed behind the lieutenant, watching him go right to his brother. He stared down at him with a rigid posture for a moment before laying his hand on Gideon’s forehead. “He’s burning up.”

  At that moment Ember trotted over to Finn and leaned against him while she wagged her tail. Finn stroked her head absently and focused on me. “How long has he been like this?”

  “About an hour. I couldn’t move him after he was attacked without Dex’s help, and it took him a half hour to get to us.”

  Finn placed the crystal on his brother’s chest. “How do you activate this thing?”

  I stepped forward and held my hand out. He placed it in my palm and I put my lips to the crystal, pushed some essence with some specific intention into it and said, “Trinket, trinket come to light, awaken now to save a life.”

  The crystal lit up with a bright yellow glow, but it held absolutely no healing properties whatsoever. But Finn didn’t know that, so I handed it back to the lieutenant and he put it back on his brother’s chest again.

  Meanwhile Ember was still leaning against his legs and wagging her tail, waiting for him to notice her. Finn looked around and eyed the loveseat.

  I moved there quickly and waved him back to the couch. “Sit with your brother. Let him know you’re near.”

  Finn’s face was creased with worry, but he didn’t argue. Moving to Gideon’s feet he lifted his legs, sat down and allowed his brother’s calves to drape over his lap.

  Just as I’d hoped, the second Finn sat down Ember hopped up onto the couch next to him and wiggled her way onto Finn’s lap too. “Hello, girl,” Finn said, rubbing her muzzle. “Be a good pup and get down now, eh?”

  “Let Ember stay,” I said casually. “She kept me company last night and I swear it helped me recover faster. Just having her near brought me comfort.”

  Finn laid a hand on Ember’s back and she squirmed to lay half her body on Finn and half against Gideon.

  I didn’t care where she settled as long as she was physically touching Gideon. Even a paw on his leg would help him heal.

  Sitting back on the couch, Finn regarded me, his expression curious and far too sexy for my liking. As he gazed at me the charm grew hot again against my skin. A well of desire rose up but I was able to tamp it down again, and I didn’t think I’d ever been more relieved in my life to have a trinket to help stave off the worst effects of my binding spell.

  “How did he get like this?” Finn asked.

  “Elric,” I said without any further explanation, because what other explanation would he need?

  The Flayer’s brow lowered and his lips pressed into a thin line. His hatred for my boss was palpable. “What spell did Ostergaard use?”

  “Don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it, but he said something about the sound waves from a sperm whale being able to vibrate a man to death.”


  Finn muttered an expletive. “That would explain why Gideon’s core temp feels like it’s on fire.”

  “It would,” I agreed.

  Narrowing his eyes at me, he said, “And where were you when all this was going down?”

  “I was trying to convince Elric to spare your brother’s life.”

  “What beef could Ostergaard have with Gideon?”

  I sighed. “The second he spotted Ostergaard, your brother whipped out his badge and yelled, ‘Hands in the air, Ostergaard! You’re under arrest!’ Quelle surprise, Elric felt disrespected.”

  Finn frowned at his unconscious twin. “Idiot.”

  “Yes. But I’d say he paid a fairly high price for being so obtuse.”

  Finn pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “How did you guys bump into Ostergaard anyway? The guy lives inside his headquarters.”

  “He found us.”

  “Where?”

  I felt my shoulders tense. I didn’t trust Finn. Not even a little, but I was worried that if I didn’t answer him, he’d pick up his brother and take him away, and I wasn’t yet convinced that Gideon would make it without Ember’s intervention. “At the scene of a crime,” I said, vaguely.

  Finn frowned. “Grigori’s?”

  “Yes.”

  “So Elric’s looking for the egg, huh?” Finn asked.

  “Duh,” I said. “Same as Petra, I assume.”

  “Duh,” Finn said, echoing me. “But that’s not my mission.”

  “Right. Tic’s your mission.”

  “He is. And you’re still the only solid link I have to that little mystery.”

  “I don’t know what else I can say that I haven’t already told you.”

  Finn sighed. “What intel did the little bastard give up to you the day he was abducted?”

  I drummed my fingers against my knee, considering what I should tell him. “He gave up Grigori’s location.”

  Finn grunted in agreement. “Marco’s always been good for solid intel, but it bothers me that Grigori was here for at least a month and I never got word of it.”

  “He was careful,” I said.

  “Not too careful if Marco found him.”

  “They’d met before when Marco was seven and he and his father were making their way back from Prussia. Marco recognized Grigori, but Grigori didn’t recognize Marco.”

  Finn grunted again. “But why would Grigori risk coming here of all places? D.C. would be the most dangerous place in the world for him.”

  “Maybe he liked the sight of cherry blooms in springtime.”

  “Oh, I think it was quite more than that.”

  I eyed him curiously but he didn’t elaborate. Instead, he reached out and felt Gideon’s hands. “He’s better,” he said. “Cooler.”

  Gideon responded to his brother’s touch by jerking and letting out a small moan. Ember startled and jumped off the couch. She then went into a deep stretch followed by a good shake of her body and I could tell there’d be no getting her back onto the couch to settle against Gideon again.

  So, when Finn wasn’t looking, I focused on the crystal on his brother’s chest and pulled my essence back from it.

  The light illuminating the crystal winked out.

  Finn picked it up. “What happened?”

  I shrugged. “I think your brother took all the juice it had left to give.”

  He frowned, and cut me a suspicious look. He knew he’d been hoodwinked out of nine grand.

  I offered him another shrug with my palms up. “A deal’s a deal.”

  “Or a steal’s a steal,” he said.

  Ember trotted toward the door leading to the courtyard, and I got up to let her out.

  When I came back to the love seat, Finn had already gotten his brother to a sitting position. “I think he’s recovered enough to move now,” he said. “I’ll take him to my place. There’s a trinket or two there that’ll help him get the rest of the way back to normal.”

  I nodded. “Good plan. Do you want help getting him into the car?”

  “Nah,” he said. “I got it. Oh, and you can keep this.”

  Finn tossed me the crystal dud, and I reached out to catch it. A second before it landed in my palm, I heard Ember’s warning bark from the courtyard, but it was too late. As my hand closed around the trinket, a bolt of energy hit me like a sucker punch, and in an instant, my world went dark.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Day 3

  I jolted awake in the front seat of a vehicle alone, with something taped across my mouth, and hands and legs bound by a golden cord.

  “Mutdahuck?!!!” I swore. Well, would’ve sworn if I hadn’t been muzzled. Looking around frantically, trying to get my bearings, I quickly realized that I was in a parking garage, currently stuck in an SUV sitting in front of an elevator.

  “Hinn!” I growled. “Matsonohamitch!”

  Even though I’d been knocked completely out, I felt no worse for wear. And my head and thoughts were clear. Which meant that whatever spell Finn had hit me with had only been set for stun.

  The bastard had obviously repurposed the crystal I’d sold him the second my back was turned to let Ember out. Seething with rage, I tried to pull out of my bindings, but they were as strong as steel. I then tried reaching up to remove the tape across my mouth, hoping to say a counterspell to free myself, but the cord around my wrists wouldn’t allow my hands to rise past chest level. I then resorted to twisting and squirming, trying to figure out how to get out of the SUV if I couldn’t do more than wiggle.

  The problem was that I was still locked in by the seatbelt, which was holding me fast against the seat, and try as I might to depress the release to unclasp the thing, I couldn’t get it to budge. Finn had obviously enchanted it too.

  Frustrated and furious, I leaned back against the seat and yelled, “Essole!”

  The door opened abruptly, and Finn stuck his head inside. Wearing a smile, he asked, “Who’s an asshole?”

  What followed was a lengthy stream of muffled yelling that was all but unintelligible. But I think he got the gist.

  “Whew!” he said, when I paused to breathe heavily through my nose, trying to gather enough air to go for round two. “Feel better?”

  If looks could kill, that son of a bitch woulda been stone-cold dead. And I mean dead-dead. The kind of dead that even Ember couldn’t bring him back from.

  “Yikes,” he said, reading my thoughts, but I could tell that I didn’t really scare him.

  Good, I thought. Underestimate me. That’ll be fun for you.

  Finn crossed his arms and continued to stand there expectantly.

  I rolled my eyes and grunted, “Uht?”

  “Will you cooperate if I undo your bindings?”

  I simply glared at him in reply.

  He sighed dramatically. “Esmé, come on. You have no play here. I can leave you in the car for as long as it takes to make sure Gideon is okay, or you can agree to behave once I get the bindings off and invite you upstairs to keep vigil with me.”

  “Ers Mmmer?!” I demanded. If he’d left Ember in the courtyard or worse, brought her here, I really would kill him.

  “Your pup is safely back inside the warehouse,” he said. “I let her in from the courtyard after I’d settled you and Gideon in the car. She wasn’t especially happy with me, but she didn’t tear me to pieces, so I think we’re good.”

  Mollified that Ember was safe, I took another couple of seconds really thinking through my options. The problem was that Finn had caught me completely off guard. I had nothing on me save a low-level location trinket, lockpick, voice-concealing die, the monocle, and the serpent and staff healing trinket, which meant that I had no weapon available to me except my wits.

  Reluctantly and with an irritated grunt, I nodded, holding up my wrists so that he could undo the rope.

  Finn ignored the gesture and said, “Your solemn vow that you’ll cooperate, and not attack me or run away if I let you out of those?”

&n
bsp; I rolled my eyes again. Why was he being such an asshole about this? And, more important, why the emphasis on my not running away? What was it exactly that he wanted from me?

  It wasn’t like I could ask him with the tape over my mouth, and I doubted he’d give me a straight answer anyway. So, simply to move things along, I offered him my bound hands and nodded.

  The second I put forward my hands, though, Finn enveloped them with his own. In the instant his skin touched mine, another bolt of energy surged through me and, had my mouth not been taped shut, I definitely would’ve gasped.

  Desire curled like smoke through every part of me, so intense that my eyes watered. Finn caught my gaze, his irises swelling to all but obscure the hazel of his eyes, and I thought I’d drown in those dark pools if he held onto my hands for much longer.

  Numbly, I continued to nod my head, and warmth flowed outward from our hands to continue to draw out the smoke of desire like a backdraft.

  Finn stepped closer, hovering just above me, so close that I could feel the warmth of his body. Against my chest the half-heart charm burned like a hot coal, and the more I became aware of its uncomfortable heat, the more I was able to back away from the lustful urge to strip Finn the Flayer naked and have my way with him.

  Still, it was damned hard to pull my hands out of his grasp once the heat from the binding agreement between us had dissipated, but I managed.

  What I couldn’t hide were the physical effects his touch had had on me. Sweat had broken out against my brow, my skin felt flush, and my breathing was ragged and strained, hampered by the tape across my mouth.

  If Finn noticed, he said nothing. Waving a finger toward the twine around my wrists and feet, they fell away, releasing me.

  He then reached out with that same finger, moving a lock of hair out of my eyes.

  The move was a caress that was altogether unexpected, and again the charm around my neck burned hot.

  Finn allowed his hand to fall and then he stepped back. I reached up and pulled the tape off my mouth, hissing at the pain but grateful for it, because it also helped snap me out of a dangerously tempting moment.