Authors: Jody Wallace
“Who did you call, mister?” Tonya pointed at Dad, and he quit shaking the jar. “If it was Shirl, I’m going to break your TV.”
“I called nobody.” He smiled. “I dug around in the elders’ forums. I’m a hacker now.”
“Gaia bless it.” Tonya returned to the couch and buried her face in her hands. “I was just starting to like it here.”
“He did it a month ago.” Katie sat beside Tonya and nudged her friend’s leg with her knee. “I don’t think he broke our cover.”
“Quit bellyaching. Of course I didn’t,” Dad put in.
“And it’s possible they’ve been biding their time.” Tonya had her own reasons for participating in Vern’s witchy witness protection program. She didn’t want to be reintroduced to the network either. “Lying in wait like snakes in the weeds.”
Katie rubbed her temples. Tonya was their front. Ostensibly, Tonya was the one with the handler—Nathaniel Oman, another sympathizer. Oman knew nothing about Katie and her father. This had been the deal they’d worked with Vernon after Katie’s inquest…and after the keepers had tried to wipe her.
They’d failed. A convex, alpha witch, Katie wasn’t wipeable. No one had known that was possible prior to her. The memory magic had ricocheted off her the same as destructive spells. Her final sentence, the only way to eliminate a wild card like her, had been death.
Hiram Lars had spearheaded that sentence. If the keepers—if Lars—found out she was still alive, they’d never be safe.
“I don’t believe they’d bide their time,” Katie said. “If anyone knew about us, we’d already be dead. However, I did update our go bags.”
Tonya nodded, growing more solemn. “I could have Nathaniel look into a new site.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Dad said. “I’m tired of moving. I was dodging coven schemes, human eyeballs and wolf packs a century before you two were even born.” Her father had been a West Coast region elder. “I’m at the tail end of my third pass-through.”
Tonya shot him an evil glance. “Code for senile.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m sharp as a gorram tack. I know who wolf boy is, and you can’t remember somebody you met ten years ago.”
“What do you mean I met him?” Tonya asked. “I don’t forget a face, and I don’t forget someone’s chi.” One of Tonya’s abilities was viewing the chi of witches and wolves, like Katie had joked about with Marcus.
“Dummy,” Dad said. “His face now wouldn’t be the face you saw. You’re not the only one good at camouflage.”
“I’ll look at him with the true eye. It doesn’t take much energy. If we have a history, it’s best we know everything. It will also tell us what kind of man he is.”
“A man who can’t resist dipping his wick.” Dad shook the jar. “That’s what kind of loser he is.”
“Don’t be ugly. Love is an unstoppable force.”
The change had taken Marcus, but Katie couldn’t imagine him, even as little as she knew about him, becoming foolish over a lover. His wolf seemed close to the surface, but he hadn’t hurt her—or done anything else to her—when he could have. His manners were impeccable.
What would it be like to break through that restraint? Katie mentally kicked herself for even wondering.
Dad cleared his throat. “His name’s Luis Del Macario Rodríguez. Formerly New York West coven, or what’s left of it.” Coven membership in some urban areas had been struggling against wolf incursion for years. More wolves in an area meant more witches interacting with wolves and more witches who failed to just say no.
Tonya frowned. “Rodríguez. That’s sounding more familiar, but it’s a common name.” She dove back into her purse and located the chi capsules. “Very handsome man, Mr. Luis Del Macario Rodríguez. Better verify his chi.”
“My, my,” Katie said dryly. “Why would Tonya have met someone from a New York coven ten years ago? We were off the grid.”
Tonya twisted the cap of the amber pill bottle. “A festival? I always wear my best disguises there. Nothing to worry about.” Tonya’s best disguises were impenetrable to…anyone. Some days, Katie wondered if she really was a roly-poly, matronly blond with large breasts and equally large hair.
Dad snorted. “Perhaps you met him when you and your sympathizer buddies were carting some mongrel off to Mexico.”
“Impossible. I haven’t been involved in the freedom program in—”
He cackled. “Now it’s my turn to tell you to stuff it. Told you. I hacked the elder forums…Lady Pimpernel.”
If true, this confirmed what Katie suspected about Tonya’s festival visits. “Are you still involved with your group?”
“
Involved
is a strong term.” Tonya tucked the pill bottle in her purse and rolled a capsule between her fingers. “I made a deal with the Evil One that I wouldn’t participate in the freedom program as long as he quit the keeper council.”
“Are you saying Vern hasn’t quit?” Katie asked. “He couldn’t go back with Lars as director.” The person Lars had hated most in the world, next to all wolves and to Katie, who’d been ahead of him in status, had been Vern. During a change of leadership, Vern had been sent in to manage the council by the elders, who’d wanted more control. Vern had lasted ten years before the incident with Katie.
“I’m saying I honor my deals,” Tonya answered evasively.
“Then who’s Lady Pimpernel?” Dad asked. “Sounds like someone with your aptitude for fake faces.”
“As you pointed out, I’m not the only witch blessed in the art of disguise.” Witches, like physicians, often specialized. While Katie’s convex power had written her fate for her, Tonya’s training had taken other paths. Like the true eye…and espionage. Tonya could fool anyone about anything. Her masks had saved their butts on several occasions.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” Katie decided. If Tonya had been breaking her deal with Vern, she hadn’t caused Katie any trouble. “All that matters is we poppy Marcus and double up on security. People might come looking for him.”
“If you don’t have the heart to cruelly obliterate him,” Tonya said sweetly, “I could see if he’s on Nathaniel’s refugee list.” The sympathizers tried to monitor transformed wolves who might be in need of their services. The region elders hadn’t spread the existence of the freedom program around any more than they had the keepers. Some witches knew about the sympathizers, but not all.
“No.” To the sympathizers, one former witch’s memories were worth risking everyone’s safety. “It’s not just that he’s cognizant. He knows too much about me and Ba.”
Tonya sighed as she stood back up. “I give up, Katie-kins. Let’s do this. First, though, I’d like you to link into the true eye with me. That way you can witness his chi and won’t have to take my word for it.”
“I’ll hop in,” Dad said. “Katie needs to stay as far away from the mongrel as possible.”
Tonya paused, her hand on the doorknob. “Oh?”
“She’s got a thing for him.” He held up the jar. “He’s nice enough, as wolves go, but they’re both moony. This is a super-duper love killer. I’m going to cast it on her.”
“So that’s what you’ve been doing.” Katie would never let her father cast a spell as tricky as a libido dampener on her.
“That’s a lot of dampener,” Tonya observed. “Are you expecting Marcus to be chained in Katie’s bed for a while?”
“Dirty-minded woman,” Dad said. “You should take some too.”
It would do no good to change the subject. The weakness was part of who Katie was. There was no denying it, no escaping it, not with a wolf in the house. A wolf she may have been attracted to regardless of his species.
His manners, his self-confidence, his looks and his flashes of humor appealed to her. His wolf was icing on the cake.
“I appreciate your effort, Ba, but I’m covered.” Or she would be, when she dug out her libido dampener recipes and…shit, she’d need fresh cucumber and that meant a trip to the organic grocer and…ugh.
Marcus needed to be gone. Her stillroom was a wreck, thanks to Ba. They needed to pack, just in case. The life wipe was going to drain her magic. The patrol was tomorrow. She didn’t even want to
do
this…
Everything was coming to a very frustrating head.
“Nobody’s libido is going to cause trouble. We’re all adults here.” Tonya opened the bedroom door and waved Katie through. “Your spell casting, my dear Zhang Li, is too unmodulated for the delicate art of the true eye. Save it for the poppy.”
“As long as his chi’s all you look at,” Dad warned.
Tonya shot Katie a sly glance and said, “Anything you say, old man,” before shutting the door in his face.
Katie remained by the door as Tonya prepared. With Marcus out of commission, her nerves had settled. Kind of. No need to take it personally that he’d tried to use her lust to manipulate her. Why wouldn’t he? He was in danger of losing whatever life he’d created for himself.
Wolves in traps weren’t known for good behavior. She and Dad were lucky he hadn’t hurt them, and it spoke highly of his character.
Dammit.
He couldn’t be the standard macho asshole. Oh, no. He couldn’t swagger and treat her like a stupid female, her desires his due. He was rational, curious and calm, making the wolf in him, that whisper of wildness, all that much more enticing.
Tonya ducked into Katie’s bathroom and scrubbed up, talking over the running water. “Any signs of him waking?”
Katie pushed her glasses up and checked his eyes—closed. His face—relaxed. His arms—limp against the pillows under his head. His chest—rising and falling evenly. His abdomen—ripped.
She thought about shaking him and decided against it. “No.”
Drying her hands on a disposable towel, Tonya reentered the bedroom. She’d left the true eye pill on the dresser and plucked it up now, replacing it with a wet washcloth. “Let’s form a circuit over his beautiful, beautiful body.”
With some reluctance, Katie crawled across the wide bed and sat beside Marcus. Her knee bumped his hip.
Tonya took her hand in a firm grip. With her other hand she popped the spell capsule. Katie smelled a pungent whiff of kava before she felt Tonya pull a little energy from her, sending it into the mixture. The magic inside witches took shape when they funneled it through the proper organic substances.
“Touch his skin,” Tonya ordered.
Both of them—Tonya with the hand holding the herbs and Katie with her free hand—placed their fingertips on Marcus’s chest. Because Tonya had linked her into her spell, Katie saw the glow of Marcus’s chi waver around him, a blue-streaked gray with sharply defined edges. The blue streaks were brighter next to his skin, almost glowing.
Tonya spread the herbs on Marcus’s chest. “Oh, yes. That Rodríguez.”
Katie leaned forward, her hand flattening on Marcus’s smooth skin. “You know him?”
“He’s a clever son of a gun.” Tonya tapped him with her fingertips, one at a time, as if she were impatient. A tiny frown line formed between her brows. “I never thought I’d see him like this.”
“What else?”
“He’s conflicted.”
Anyone could have guessed that—he was a witch who’d lost his power and transformed into an animal, a lesser version of himself.
“Strong. Smart. He’s endured a lot.” Tonya continued to tug magic out of Katie, a gentle thread that didn’t tire either of them.
The outlay softened her mood and her spine. The urge to cuddle up to Marcus hit her. The warmth of his skin under her palm tempted her to caress him, to let her fingertips explore his dark nipples. Or down, tracing his muscles, finding that lean hollow near his hip.
Kissing it. Licking it.
Katie bit her lip and concentrated on the aura around Marcus instead of the body behind it. A faint purple tinged the edges of the blue in his chi.
Tonya looked up, meeting Katie’s questioning gaze. “He’s honest. Other people may not agree with my reading due to certain events in his past, but I think we can trust him.”
“I thought honesty was brown?” Would Tonya tell the truth about Marcus’s chi if it meant she could sway Katie and Zhang Li to her way of thinking?
“Brown. Or brownish gray. Or gray.”
“What’s purple?”
Tonya grinned. “Let’s just say I bet your chi’s purple too, when you think about him.”
“Ah. That.” Lust. Marcus could have been horny before coming here. Oversexed. Chi wasn’t like mind reading, so Tonya had no way of knowing whether Marcus’s purple had anything to do with Katie…did she?
She didn’t have a chance to ask. The luminous shimmer around Marcus rippled as the man in question opened his eyes.
He glanced at their clasped hands and then at his chest. Katie was tempted to snatch her hand back, but it would interrupt the power circuit. After a long, silent moment, he turned his gaze on Tonya.
“Hello, Ms. Applebaum,” he said in a calm voice. “I can’t say I’m pleased to see you here, still reading people’s chi without permission.”
Tonya let the aura dissipate and dropped Katie’s hand. “You’d think after what happened to your sister, you wouldn’t have done the same thing?”
Marcus frowned, deepening the groove between his brows. “I don’t care to discuss my sister.”
“You’re a great deal younger than you were the last time I saw you. That was a remarkable age mask. I wouldn’t have guessed. It seems we have more than the true eye in common.”
“He had the true eye?” Katie returned her hands to her lap, her fingers tingling with magic residue—and contact with Marcus’s skin.
“All good scientists do. He can probably read a lattice with it. I only read character.” Tonya dabbed his chest with the washrag from the dresser, cleaning off the spell components. “So what have you been up to the past ten years? Aside from dating a wolf, I mean.”
“I don’t care to discuss that with you either.” Anger Katie had never seen from Marcus in her admittedly short time of knowing him tightened his expression. “Not after you and your sympathizers bungled your promise to help my sister and got her killed.”
“You what?” Katie shot Tonya a shocked glance, but Tonya was concentrating on Marcus.
“Yes, you would think that. And then you went with
them,
so we couldn’t stay in touch with you.”
“I went with no one. I was taken,” Marcus spat.
“Oh, dear. Were you? You know, I always wondered. You seemed so earnest. I guess this is a good time to tell you that your sister…”