Maximum Witch: That Old Black Magic, Book 3 (18 page)

“What was that?” crazy bitch demanded.

“I said why didn’t we just do this in the beginning?” He pointed to the dead seagull shifter on the ground. “It would have saved the trouble of torturing that dumb bastard for information he didn’t have.”

The duchess’s scarlet lips took a decidedly evil upward slant. “But then that would have spoiled my fun.”

Harrison and Reva decided it would be best to leave the six leviathan henchmen in the minivan while they ransacked the Jameson girl’s apartment. In all honesty, it killed Harrison just a little bit inside to be chauffeuring his hand-picked death squad around in a fucking minivan. The future leader of the world did
not
cruise in the same vehicle that shuttled soccer kids to and fro, for fuck’s sake. It was an abomination. First chance he got, he was stealing a goddamn tank.

They broke into the apartment with nary any trouble. In fact, the ease of it was almost a disappointment. Working together, they systematically went through every scrap of paper, every tossed-away receipt,
anything
that offered a possible avenue they might use against the girl in order to earn her compliance. Just as he became convinced they were wasting precious time, they entered the bedroom and the duchess’s attention fell upon a framed photograph of the girl with an older woman. An angry hiss erupted from Reva. Eyes flashing fire, she turned on him, hurtling the frame at his head. He ducked in the nick of time. What was it with her and the fucking hissy fits?

Far as partner selections went, she was turning out to be a bigger pain in the ass than she was worth. Too bad he didn’t know all this shit before he sprang her out of prison.

“Why did you not tell me
she’s
alive too?”

“Who?”

“Aurele Telluride.”

The former advisor to the King of Atlantis? Bending, he picked up the frame. “I didn’t know about her. Only the girl.”

“You better be telling me the truth, leviathan.” Reva stared him down, the hard, black glint of her pupils issuing a silent challenge to defy her. Her motions angry, she ripped the picture from his grasp and glared at the smiling pair. “Look at how smug she is, thinking she’s bested me. Sentencing me to rot all those years in squalor in that prison while she no doubt lived the high life.”

Recalling the opulence he’d recently
rescued
the duchess from, he smothered a snort.

A calculating smile stretched Reva’s mouth. “You know, it’s just occurred to me that we no longer have need of the girl.”

“What do you mean?” There was no way he’d forget about the Jameson girl. Not when that fucking shark had payback coming to him.

“Don’t get me wrong. That half-breed atrocity is going to die, as will the rest of the humans. But Aurele Telluride knows full well where the trident is. I’d stake my life on it.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

Reva didn’t appear pleased at having such a possibility brought to her attention. “Then we will use Aurele as collateral, you imbecile. Bring her to me.”

He glared at the duchess. Forget ruling at her side. First chance he got, he was offing the crazy bitch. “That will require an address. Something we obviously don’t have.”

“Don’t give me that nonsense. You’re a leviathan. You can teleport with a visual link.” She thrust the picture at him. “
That
should be more than adequate.”

Yes, for those of his species who were more skilled than him. He had no problem popping from one dimension to another, but teleporting to various land coordinates? Not his strong suit. It was just one of the many reasons he hated being earthbound. It leached him of power, made him feel weak.

He despised feeling weak.

“What’s troubling you, leviathan? Can you not do this one simple task?” The taunting quality of her tone made him consider ripping her eyeballs out.

Adding that future pleasure to his to-do list, he focused on the picture, mentally imprinting each minute detail of the landscape into the cells of his transport cortex. The corresponding tingle shivered along his limbs, but he didn’t budge from the spot he stood in. Reva’s mocking laughter assaulted his ears. Growling, he stared harder at the images on the photo paper. Still nothing.

“You stupid, worthless leviathan. You can’t even—”

In the blink of an eye he went from glaring at the duchess, to glaring at…a very hairy man in obscenely tight jogging shorts. Grimacing, Harrison pivoted, wishing he possessed a bottle of acid to wash the sight from his eyes. Across from him stood the house from the photo. A sweet note of triumph sang through his veins.

He did it!

Cackling in glee, he raced across the street. He didn’t know what excited him more, being one step closer to world domination, or making the crazy bitch eat crow.

Max paced restlessly in Boone’s examining room, desperately trying to get his thoughts organized enough to figure out what their next plan of attack should be. He’d placed a call to Justin and apprised him of the situation. The young duke’s skepticism had been readily apparent, but at least he hadn’t hung up on Max. The good news was he’d gotten through to Justin enough to gain the duke’s promise to get on the horn with the royal army and find out what the hell they knew about the situation. It’d taken some doing, but he’d also convinced Justin to dispatch some troops to Tybee.

His cell phone buzzed, and he glanced at the caller ID. It wasn’t a number he recognized. He clicked the Talk button. “Hello?”

“Sheriff Maxwell Truitt?”

“Yes.” From the corner of his eye, he noticed Willa staring at him. Guessing that she was hopeful it was Aurele, he shook his head. Her shoulders slumped.

“This is General Lessway. The Duke of Atlanta informed me there’s a problem gathering in your jurisdiction.”

Max grunted. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“It’s been brought to my attention that sometime early this morning, Reva Bellemuir escaped her cell and massacred twenty of my men. You have my full support and cooperation with anything you require.”

By great force of will, Max kept from grinding his teeth. “That’s coming twenty-two years too late, wouldn’t you say? None of this would be happening if Reva Bellemuir had been brought to trial.”

“You think I don’t agree with you? Damn it, Sheriff, you more than anyone should understand my frustration with the leash these royals keep me on.”

“A leash that’s no doubt lined with plenty of cold hard cash.”

The general chose not to comment upon Max’s assessment, instead giving his word that he planned to leave Florida ASAP and meet his troops in Tybee. Hanging up, Max eyed Willa and Boone. “Well, the good news is reinforcements are on their way, for whatever help they’ll be.” He tried not to focus on the dead soldiers Reva had apparently taken out. Probably better not to tell Willa about that. She already had enough stress on her plate.

“M-maybe we should drive back to Atlanta and pick up Aurele.”

He took one look at Willa’s pale face and knew she didn’t stand a prayer of relaxing until she verified with her own eyes that the older woman was safe. Nodding, he glanced at Boone. “Any chance we can borrow your Land Rover?”

“I’ll do you better than that—I’ll drive.”

He exchanged a long look with Boone. “You’re placing yourself in the middle of something that could get you killed. Not sure I like that idea.”

“Look at it this way. If I go out in a blaze of glory, my old man will be so damn proud, he’ll probably piss himself.”

Boone’s father had been sheriff of parish nine for thirty plus years before Max took over. The stories about him were legendary. There wasn’t a bad guy Quaid Forrester wasn’t prepared to put the hurt on, and he had the scars to prove it. “What is it with you damn seals? You’ve all got death wishes.”

“Yep.” Grinning, Boone patted his pocket. “But we’ve also got the keys to the car.”

Max knew well enough when he was defeated. “Fine. But I get to drive, damn it.”

Three and a half hours later he pulled into Aurele’s driveway for the second time that day. He’d never racked this much road mileage in such a short period of time. It was starting to wear on him. Which might account for why he didn’t immediately notice that Aurele’s sedan wasn’t in the drive. “Doesn’t look like she’s home.”

“It’s all right,” Willa piped from the backseat. “I’ve got a key.” She was out of the vehicle and halfway up the porch steps before he even opened his door.

“She doesn’t ever slow down, does she?”

He slid Boone a wry look. “You have no idea.”

They both climbed from the Land Rover just as Willa’s frantic cry shot from the vicinity of the house. Max slammed his door shut and raced toward the sound. He leapt over the threshold of the entry, dread knocking him dead square in the solar plexus as he took in the chaotic state of the living room. The coffee table was smashed to smithereens, the couch flung onto its back end. Across the way, a floor lamp protruded from the television screen.

Boone stepped up beside him, his eyes wide. “Holy shit.”

“Reva was here.” Willa spun toward them, her face awash with fear and horror. “She has Aurele!”

“There’s no way she could have gotten here before us,” Max pointed out. And how would Reva have even known where to find Aurele anyway? Of course, he was still baffled by Reva showing up at the stationhouse. It was as if she’d had some inside source about his involvement with Willa. But other than Aurele, Willa’s friend from the Witches Alliance, and Boone, nobody had even seen him with—

From nowhere, the image of the unconscious leviathan he’d gotten into the fight with seeped into his brain.
Motherfucker
. He should have gone with his initial instinct and killed the ugly sonofabitch.

Furious over his shortsightedness and the events unraveling around him, Max grabbed Willa’s arm and dragged her toward the entry. She struggled within his grip, sobbing. “Let me go! We have to find Aurele.”

“Willa, we have to get out of here.
Now
.” He had no idea if Aurele’s kidnapper would be coming back to the scene of the crime, but he wasn’t going to allow Willa to remain here, a sitting duck.

Boone opened the rear passenger door, and Max unceremoniously dumped Willa onto the backseat. She tried to wiggle underneath his arm, presumably to dash back to the house, but he jumped next to her and restrained her against the seat. He fished the keys from his pocket with his free hand and threw them at Boone. “Get us out of here.”

Without wasting precious time asking questions, Boone hopped behind the wheel and sped them away from the quiet subdivision. Meanwhile, Willa continued to glare at Max, her eyes waterlogged with tears as he pinned her beneath him. “Baby, I know you’re scared for Aurele. But none of us will do her a damn bit of good if you end up falling into Reva’s clutches too. My number-one priority right now is keeping you safe.”

“You heard what she said. They’re probably going to t-torture her into revealing where the trident is.” A fresh sob broke from Willa. “Sh-she’s the only family I have left. I can’t lose her.”

“I know. But as long as Reva’s convinced that Aurele can lead her to the trident, she’s not going to kill her.”

Willa quieted, her desperate struggles lessening.

“Uh, guys, not to break into things back there, but I can only drive around aimlessly so long before we run out of gas.”

Max gave Willa a stern look. “Are you going to behave now, and not do something stupid like jump out of a moving vehicle?” She nodded and he cautiously released her before sitting up and meeting Boone’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “We need to find a secure location where we can put our heads together and come up with a plan on how to stop Reva.”

“You can’t get any more secure than the ducal manor.”

Max tweaked the bridge of his nose. “Let me get this straight. You’re suggesting we hole up at Justin’s house—the grandson of the psychotic bitch who’s out to annihilate us all?”

“You said yourself you trust him.” Boone’s focus shifted to Willa in the mirror. “Maybe knowing who Willa is will force Justin to use every trace of power at his disposal to protect her.”

Max stared at Boone. “How long have you known about Willa?”

“Ever since you mentioned Aurele’s name. I figured it was too much of a coincidence that two of the three missing murder victims resurfaced on the same day. I put two and two together and realized who Willa had to be.”

“Damn, you do take after your old man.” Max rubbed his jaw, considering their options. There was no doubt that taking Willa to Justin would be a huge risk. But as Boone pointed out, the duke came with a lot of powerful backing. Plus plenty of security guards. It didn’t automatically guarantee them safety, particularly considering how Reva had managed to massacre twenty of the royal soldiers pretty damn effortlessly. But it was better than what they currently had to work with.

Not to mention, if Reva ever did get her hands on the trident, she’d have to take it to the Altar of Atlantis in order to initiate her watery Armageddon. That meant accessing the royal palace. The quickest point of entry for them to intercept Reva would be through the portal on the duke’s property.

Everything pointed at the ducal manor being the most logical choice.

Max just hoped that choice wouldn’t ultimately backfire on him.

Chapter Seventeen

Despite her distress over Aurele, Willa couldn’t help gaping at the enormous Italianate mansion she glimpsed beyond the manned gatehouse they were currently parked in front of. After a brief conversation with the guard, Boone drummed his fingers on the wheel, his focus glued to the closed gate.

Max adjusted his seat belt. “Don’t be surprised if Justin refuses to let us in. With everything I’ve sprung on him today, I doubt he’s thrilled at the prospect of seeing my mug.”

No sooner did Max voice his concerns than the gate slowly opened with a silent, fluid grace.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Max muttered.

“You need to have more faith in my ability to charm my way into anywhere.” His grin cocky, Boone shifted gears and drove past the gate. A long, straight driveway led to the house, immaculately landscaped gardens bordering either side. A large, circular fountain stood at the foot of the drive, its cascading spray trickling down the extended arms of the bronze mermaid rising from its center. Boone parked the Land Rover in front of the fountain, and they all exited the vehicle.