Chapter 196

Charles

Grace went down like a bag of bricks. Shit. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse. She’d probably feel like shit for days, but I had a feeling that she had lasted way longer than I should have expected. An Enforcer caught her as another group of men jumped out from another building. The tension in the air was palpable. The rain was intensifying, turning the ground into muck and making it hard to get a good stance as we fought.

“Fuck's sake!” Someone yelled, slamming a body into the ground. It shattered into a pile of pebbles. “Golem!”

“Find the hearthstone!” I hissed. “After them!”

the Pebble started to rejoin themselves. One of the enforces turned, drawing a sweeping arc of air before slicing a building in half. Most of the figures dropped into piles of pebbles. The other ones seemed spooked, but they didn’t let up. Tough. They must have been trained. Not the usual Mafia types either. Who they actually were would have to wait.

“Suppression only. We need them all for questioning. Make a path!”

One of them caps a spell that shoved most of the remaining men aside, and I charged through it back to the jeeps. I hoped none of them had poisoned capsules. I tried to get an idea of who hired them based on their movements and their organization, but I couldn't get a good read on them. Still, I knew that the fact that these kinds of men were being hired to carry this mission out, whatever the true objective might be, was a problem that wasn’t going to go away easily.

“What do you think of them?”

“ Could be military.”

“ Human?”

“Experimental.” The Enforcer paused as we turned the corner. “Or they're actually werewolves. Juiced up werewolves.”

“Juiced on what?” I groaned. “ Honestly, I thought we'd cut that down.”

“Potions. Drugs. You know, certain members of witch society enjoy making addictive substances that would give these kinds of results. It could be of their own making. Or humans.”

Damn it. Just what we needed. And it wasn't like I could ask them to stop.

“Those that are captured have their blood tested.”

There were too many possibilities. Maybe these were actually core members, people who were directly under Sean's influence. They were probably taking the same elixir he was to keep himself alive, or some cut version of it. I still couldn't shake the feeling that maybe they might be human. They could be juiced up humans, and that would explain a lot of it, too. Whoever it was, they definitely had a witch contact. Who exactly did Devin owe this debt to? I couldn't imagine him borrowing money from Sean himself; humans still seemed like a better idea.

“Hey!” I turned back as Grace's body came flying towards me. I caught her gently and carried her as he turned back to fight off the following people.

I shoved another man back and hauled her into the jeep. She grunted as she landed, and I climbed in as the Jeep started to roll away and follow the SUV. The jeep roared. Tires screeched, and we shot forward into the dark. My gaze scanned the road ahead, searching for the trail left by the speeding vehicle. It was hard to make it out through the rain and the flashes of lightning.

“They couldn’t have gotten far…”

Unless, they were using whatever spell they’d been using before to get away. I sniffed the air, picking up the scent of burning rubber and exhaust fumes fading into the rain. They had gotten far but not so far as to think that they were gone. Whatever spell they were using had probably worn off, or this is a different group altogether.

“Would be nice if they wore badges, wouldn't it?” The Enforcer asked, scoffing as we hit another bump in the road.

“Would be. What about the spell?”

“I'm not seeing any magical activity,”

“Let’s hope they can’t recharge it.”

Because if they could, we’d be screwed. The jeep lurched forward over the even ground, rattling with every rock and tree root that we rolled over. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins. I glanced down at Grace and then back towards the road ahead.

“She’ll be out for a while,” I said. “We need to have this done before she wakes up.”

“Agreed.” The Enforcer huffed. “She made it far, but another shift isn't gonna be possible. Her brother didn't have to go to Asylum, but she might.”

My gut clenched at the thought.

“There!”

I saw the rear lights of the SUV swaying and jerking in the distance as it drove farther and faster away from us. Then, we broke through the trees, and suddenly, we were on a street again. I didn’t think we were back in Mooncrest City proper, but we were definitely in some town with enough people to have cars to be a problem. Shit.

“Definitely not taking the easy route,” one of the Enforcers said, his face grim. “They probably don’t have that spell anymore, but they’re smart enough to know that it would be damn hard to catch them in this traffic.”

We couldn’t put in barriers because it might interfere with the other cars driving around and hurt someone, but if we didn’t, there was a good chance that they’d hit an open road before us and take off. I wasn’t going to chance them having access to that spell if I could help it. I slipped my jacket off and threw it on top of Grace.

“Brace me.”

I leaned out one side of the jeep, pulling out my lance. Someone took a firm grip on me as I narrowed my focus on the SUV ahead of us. My grip tightened on the lance, the magical energy crackling around its tip. Buildings blurred past, and the city lights a kaleidoscope of colors reflected in the rearview mirror.

“You’re not going to get a clear shot.”

Frustration gnawed at me. The SUV weaved through traffic with reckless abandon.

“I have to try.”

I softened the magic in the lance just enough so that if I missed, it wouldn’t damage anything else around it and took the shot. The javelin struck the side of the van, barely scraping it before slamming into a brick wall. I recalled it, cursing myself for being so off.

“Try again,” the Enforcer bracing me said. “We’re coming up on a narrower road after the next hard turn.”

“To where?”

“More forest.”

Smart criminals. What fun.

I met the guy’s gaze. He tightened his grip on me. “Take another shot.”

I focused on trying to block out the chaos that was around us and the feeling of the jeep jumping and jostling with every turn. They took another sharp turn.

“Where the hell are we going?” I growled, holding onto the edge of the jeep. “Someone get me a heading!”

“The only thing this way are the caves.”

Fear clawed at my throat. I could smell the stale cave water and darkness. I could hear Eason’s cries of pain. I could smell his blood like we were back underneath the city during the Blood Moon attack all over again.

“The hell they are!”

Then, amidst the roar of engines and the flashing lights, a soft whimper.

My gaze found Grace, her form shifting, the brown fur receding until she lay In the back of the Jeep naked beneath my jacket, trembling, pale and vulnerable. She was going to be in a world of pain and probably a wreck emotionally for a few days. By the moon, I hope she didn't get worse. She'd come so far to have her awakening undo it all; it all seemed so unfair. There would be no turning back if we didn't get Cecil back by the time she woke up. Then, Cecil's crying voice cut through the air as if I was inside the van with her.

"Let me go! I want to go home!"

“Shut up!” She whimpered. There was a sharp sound, and the fury boiled in my veins.

As soon as the traffic was thin enough, I unleashed a surge of raw magic, sending the javelin flying. The SUV swerved aside, and I cast a shimmering barrier right into its path, bouncing it back and caging it. The SUV screeched to a halt, tires spitting up gravel as they slammed into the invisible wall.

“Holy shit…” The Enforcer yelled.

I jumped out of the jeep and hurried forward. A hulking figure got out the back, cursing with a pistol glinting in his hand as lightning flashed. In his arms, limp and whimpering, Cecil dangled like a broken doll, eyes wide with terror. A fresh bruise marred her cheek, a stark crimson stain against her pale skin. My blood ran cold, the storm within me erupting. In that split second, time seemed to slow. He lifted the gun. His mouth started to open. His finger twitched. His eyes widened. The world blurred. I knew I was moving, but I didn’t know how fast or when or how. I’d felt this before. So many years ago, when fire had surrounded me and my father lay dead. People swarmed into the castle, intent on killing me the way they’d killed so many others. The world narrowed to one point: Cecil. Her eyes were closed. Magic, raw and potent, ripped through the air, a silver blade severing flesh and bone in a blink. The man's head spun through the air, a gruesome arc against the lightning-lit sky.