Witch Interrupted (10 page)

None of them.

They’d just want her gone. Dead or otherwise out of the picture. There was a reason convex witches across the world devoted their lives to the keeper council, and it wasn’t simply that the council forced the issue.

If the memory loss was permanent, how could she explain to Tonya and Dad what and who they were? They’d have to stopper their magic or who knew what would happen? Witches without knowledge were witches without control—not a direct equivalent to a feral shifter but hazardous nonetheless.

Moreover, any wolf who came near the three of them without masks would peg them as shifters who hadn’t yet undergone the change. Juveniles. In theory, that’s what witches were. But born wolves never went longer than their early twenties without turning.

Katie, barely old enough to start her second pass-through, could pass without a huge stretch, but Tonya looked forty. And Dad, well, there was no way his existence as a juvenile wolf was going unremarked.

She only had two days of Tonya’s primed disguises in the go bag at the shop, and her stillroom was trashed. Tonya was the one who contacted Nathaniel when they needed anything, not Katie. He didn’t know about her and Dad, and loyalty was everything to the sympathizers. He’d be furious to discover Tonya had tricked him into aiding and abetting Chang Cai for twenty years. He’d cast them all to the wolves. Literally.

How could Katie, without magic, without assistance, without anyone on her side, keep them safe?

Safe from wolves. Safe from witches. Safe from keepers. Safe from humans. Safe from…

Marcus.

“What are you going to do, Marcus?” she finally asked around the lump in her throat. Luckily the nausea had subsided. Why was he still here? He could have dumped them in the park and taken off the second he’d regained consciousness.

Revenge. It had to be revenge.

Marcus touched her cheek, stroking it in a way that would appear loving to an observer. His eyes paled, and Katie gulped. “If you want my help to clean up this mess, you’re going to have to give me something in return, Katie. What I want is your cooperation in my research. All of my research.”

Katie, Chang Cai, Black Widow, whoever she was, stared at Marcus for a long moment before resignation settled across her tired features. “We can draw up a standard consulting contract.”

“For this? No.” Marcus let himself stroke her warm cheek another few seconds, tipping her face up. Shadows of exhaustion darkened the skin beneath her eyes. The only reason he still desired her had to be her scent—luscious, leery and longing, all at the same time. “You owe me, and you need me. You’re not in a position to bargain.”

The time for negotiation had passed. Considering her biases, blackmail seemed like his best chance of success.

“Fine, fine. Just watch what you say.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. She probably had a monster headache. “You can’t mention certain things around…the others.”

“I worked for your council. I know.” Newly wiped individuals had to be handled with kid gloves until their memory gaps adjusted. Katie’s backfired spell seemed to have erased all supernatural knowledge from Tonya and Zhang Li’s heads. Upsetting them with information could have unintended consequences. It would also make it harder to restrict their movements.

He might be infuriated with them—mostly with Katie—but he wasn’t stupid. If Birmingham wolves ran across people who smelled like juvenile witches but were this old, they’d investigate. Keepers would flock to this area like migrating swallows.

War between the packs, covens and keepers would be a negative for everyone.

“I know I screwed up,” Katie said. “I just want to take care of our guests.” She frowned at her father, who was watching them curiously. “We had to have been asleep for a couple hours. You did something to them, didn’t you? Something I won’t be able to do until I’m strong again.”

“Correct.” When they’d woken, he’d dosed a panicky Tonya and Zhang Li with a calming mix. It was the common form of another blend keepers used to force the truth out of someone when torture failed. He’d also told Tonya and Zhang Li he was a doctor, which was true—he just wasn’t a medical doctor. “I estimate I’ll need to do it again in six hours.”

“Nobody did anything to me,” Zhang Li said. “I just can’t remember today or who you people are. And I’m tired as a sloth.”

“I remember who I am,” Tonya said. “I’m a makeup and tattoo artist.” She peeked down her voluminous shirt. “I don’t seem to have tattoos, though.”

“I do ink too.” Zhang Li had a Chinese dragon on his forearm that actually looked like a dragon. Presumably Katie hadn’t created it. “See here.”

While Tonya and Zhang Li discussed tattoos and Katie watched them with a very un-Chang Cai-like expression of misery, Marcus considered their situation.

“If you two would give us a minute?” he asked Katie’s father and Tonya. Marcus had confiscated their keys. On foot, they couldn’t wander anywhere he couldn’t find them.

Katie glanced at Marcus fearfully when the Airstream’s door snicked shut behind them. “What do they remember?”

“Nothing that would confuse them. They think they’re human.” He hadn’t delved into their recollections. There was too much to secure before he could worry about more of Chang Cai’s victims.

“Do you think it’s permanent?”

“Your intentions were permanent when you cast the spell on me. What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” Her chin trembled, and her lashes clumped as tears filled her eyes. “I’ve never heard of a witch undergoing an accidental life wipe. I guess nobody besides me has ever been dumb enough to try it with three people.”

Who would have thought the Black Widow was a weeper? He hated the fact he wanted to comfort her. She didn’t deserve comfort. She was manipulative and dishonest. If he could read her chi, no doubt it would be as black as her heart. He touched the bay capsule in his pocket to remind himself what she was capable of.

“Your father and Tonya chose to participate,” he conceded after a tear trickled down her cheek. “Your being convex undoubtedly made it worse on your accomplices.”

Vulnerable, almost pitiful, she drew her knees to her chest. Her short, glossy hair cowlicked in all directions, and she hugged her legs. “I agree. This is my fault. What’s our next move?”

“I told you. I’m going to conduct experiments. You’re going to facilitate them.”

“What, right now?” she asked, startled. “With the patrol tomorrow, and whoever else is after you, don’t we have other things to worry about?” Katie’s lips pursed obstinately even as her gaze skittered away from his. “I guess we can get it over with.”

She might want to sleep with him, but she seemed unhappy to do so on his terms. Perhaps he should have dosed her with the calming mix as well.

Except, did he want her pliant? It would be satisfying to boss her around when she was fighting him. That was his wolf talking—and for a change, he didn’t care. He was done being respectful, done battling his urges. She’d had her chance to treat him as an equal and blown it.

“The fact is, most of the experiments will involve your magic, not your body.”

“Oh.” She pleated the hem of his T-shirt between her fingers. “Well…good.”

He wondered if she realized how disappointed she sounded. This woman confused him more than anyone he’d ever met. “Can you read chi?”

“I know the basics from Tonya.”

With someone as powerful as Katie, innate skill mattered less than it did for other witches. “Should be enough. I can access chi and the lattice from that.” Comparing her chi and lattice graphs to the ones from his and his lady friend’s coitus should be informative.

She dropped her gaze to the pale coverlet. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I tried to poppy you. I wanted to be done with that type of work. Done with the keepers.”

She smelled sincere, but he didn’t budge. How many of her responses was she able to fake? Her lust—was it real? Her regret? Was this one of the reasons she’d been such a deadly opponent? Wolves had no reason to disbelieve what their noses told them.

He couldn’t trust her words or her scent. He couldn’t trust the way she’d clung to him, the way she’d parted her thighs for him. He couldn’t trust the slippery, hot memory of her pussy beneath his fingers and the sweetness of her skin between his teeth.

He might not be able to trust himself.

“I need to set some rules.” He crossed his arms. “When I make decisions, they aren’t suggestions. They’re orders. It’s unproductive to argue all the time.” It made it harder for him to concentrate on the science, when his wolf rose to her constant challenges.

Her countenance switched from vulnerable to stony in an instant. Ah, there was the Chang Cai of legend. Back again, like the split personality from hell. “I agreed to cooperate with your experiments. I didn’t agree to be treated like I have no rights.”

“Do you want my help with your father and Tonya?” She twitched. He continued. “Or do you want me to leave you to stew in your own mess?”

“I could avoid the patrol.”

“But can you safeguard your father and Tonya alone?”

“You think you’ve got me, don’t you?” she said, eyes glittering. “Keep in mind, Marcus, that sooner or later, I’m not going to need your help anymore.”

“Sooner or later isn’t now.” He required her presence after her full strength returned if some of his theories were going to be tested. Could he handle her then? Monkshood antidote or no monkshood antidote, he couldn’t protect against everything. He wouldn’t have the advantage when she had power…unless he found a sterile environment to keep her in.

Or another hold over her.

“You can’t life wipe me alone,” he told her. “And just like you could make one phone call to ruin me, I could make that phone call too. I could ruin you and your family.”

“Fuck you.”

“Soon enough,” he said, unable to keep from stooping to her level. “I’m looking forward to it. Are you?”

She sighed, her spine bending, and rested her chin on her knees. Vulnerable again. Which Chang Cai was the true face? “I’m not going to answer that.”

“It doesn’t have to be unpleasant. I’ll just require detailed reports.” Even now, her scent was faintly layered by interest. He wished there was a test to discover whether that, at least, was authentic.

“What do you want me to say? That I find you attractive?” She slipped off the bed and picked up the pieces of her ripped T-shirt. “Is that in question after what happened?”

“Your responses were genuine?” Damn, that sounded insecure. “Authenticity is critical. Data fabrication will only hinder research that could benefit all of us.”

She huffed. “Data fabrication. Wow. I can’t fake certain things any more than you can.”

Spells could create lust, but she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to doctor herself. Granted, she was Chang Cai. Would it be wise to put anything past her or reveal anything about himself she could manipulate?

Such as how close he’d come to pleasuring her before setting his environmental protocols, his charts and the digital recording device to log responses. He’d almost taken her because he wanted to, to hell with research. He couldn’t be led by the wolf with science on the line.

When the memory of his sister was on the line. He’d never missed Elisa more than he had in the long, lonely year since he’d turned wolf. With a cure for cancer, a way to deactivate the need for keepers, what had happened to her would never happen to any witch again.

“I’ll accept your physical reaction for now,” he said, “but I’ll need to investigate it later. Step by step.”

“I already said yes.”

He remembered her halting gasp when he’d stroked her and the feel of her lips against his face. He remembered her fingers squeezing his. How many times would he need to melt her to believe it was real? “But you didn’t say please.”

She reddened again. “I realize you’re enjoying this, but it serves no purpose.”

“I disagree. It all factors in to my computations.” One had to understand how and why witches succumbed to the wolf before one could reverse the process. Witches beat the wolf in their teens. Why did they fail to beat the wolf later? Why was sex the trigger? Why did alphas remain witches? He had theories but had only partly confirmed them. Marcus had wondered whether he could withstand the wolf using knowledge as his guide, but clearly he hadn’t.

Witch magic and wolf magic were practically identical. Only the lattice—the metaphysical reservoir—changed. Logic said the transformation should go both ways. Witch could become wolf. Wolf could become witch. It should only be a matter of expertise and focus. He needed a test subject.

He needed Katie.

“Right now we both want the same thing.” After rubbing her eyes, she used the T-shirt scraps to sweep the herbal residue on the floor into a pile. “To stay hidden. Let’s worry about the rest later.”

“I want more than that,” he said softly. “But we’ll postpone phase one until I calculate the experiment variables.” Or he could try. The sight of her on the floor, at his feet, his shirt gaping around her neck…

He hadn’t been this stupidly horny since he was a teenager. Visualizing the periodic table wasn’t righting him like it should, so he turned away to fetch a dustpan.

“You’re the expert.” She gathered the last of the dust in a pile and rested on her knees.

“Technically, I’ve only engaged in witch and wolf intercourse once.”

She licked her lips. “What is it you
do
hope to prove?”

“That wolves and witches are interchangeable.” He waved his dustpan. “I want my magic back, my longevity, my discipline. But I want the wolf too. I want the strength and these senses, to be able to heal from wounds and diseases. I want protection from ever being at the keepers’ beck and call again. Protection for everyone from the keepers and their methods. We’ve no need of them if we can shift between forms at will, Katie. And I want…”

He wanted to go back in time and stop his sister. She’d been so desperate to stay alive for her baby she’d done the unthinkable. Then he’d done it himself. If it couldn’t be undone, it was possible he’d wasted his life and hers. “I want to know everything.”

“Lofty, but there’s no animal inside me.” She patted her chest, swallowed up by his T-shirt. “It’s gone. One hundred percent witch, no wolf.”

“She’s there. As much a part of you as your magic. Why wouldn’t you want access to that power? You’re only half of yourself as a witch.”

“That’s ridiculous. Did you feel like an animal before you screwed up, Marcus?”

“I didn’t screw up,” he said, disappointed in her. Why would she understand what it meant to lose one’s family? Her father was still alive. “And I’m not an animal. I dated a nice young lady for several weeks before I accepted her offer to stay overnight. At that time I carefully analyzed the process by which—”

“You did it on purpose.” She shook her head, bemused. “I knew you were unique, but now I know you’re nuts. Maybe there was a wolf inside you, but there’s not one inside me.”

Marcus smiled at her, feeling predatory. She was so confident, so certain that she was better than him, yet they were the same.

He couldn’t wait to prove it.

He was going to make her lose control. Maybe that would help him recapture his.

“Let’s go back to your shop after I…”
Tie you to the bed. Taste every inch of your body. Take you until your wolf makes you howl.
“…pack as many supplies as I can.” Many spell-grade components were available from limited sources, expensive or perishable. They should load up on what Katie already had on hand. “I assume you have standard protection wards on your building?”

“Yes.” Standard protections would keep their essences, masks or no masks, concealed from wolves or witches outside the apartment.

Marcus positioned the dustpan near the pile she’d collected and handed her a whisk broom. “What time does the patrol usually hit your street?”

“Midmorning. Not much around for them to check.” She guided the residue into the dustpan. “I won’t be able to renew the protections. I have enough primed disguise spells to get us through two days, but that’s it. Will you need a disguise?”

He preferred to stay out of the patrol’s sensing range, not rely on his masks. It was tricky, as a wolf, to get his hands on more. “Yes and no. We should avoid the patrol.”