4. Mates & the Mark of Death
Chapter four
Mates & the Mark of Death
KADI
M ate.
With one handshake turned hand kiss, I finally found my mate.
Ethan is going to lose his shit.
Joaquin is sitting quietly beside me in the alley across from Shasta’s shop. “What are you thinking about?” I ask him.
“How much Ethan is gonna lose his shit when he finds out your mate is a witch,” he says. “I know I got a little harsh with him today. We both did. I feel bad about it though. Even if he did deserve it. It’s been so long though and he needs to let the hate go. It’s hurting the club too. I do think there is more to this particular outburst than he is saying though.”
“Maybe this will be the catalyst he needs to break away from it. I’m not going to allow him to hurt her in any way so he’s going to have to get his head out of his ass,” I say with a sigh. I was hard on him today too. But Joaquin is right. Something has to give. “What do you mean by something more to this one though?”
“I think he has the hots for her and doesn’t want to admit it,” he says. Slanting his eyes over to me to gauge my reaction.
Well, I didn’t think of that. Now that I know she’s my mate, I feel a little jealous if that’s the case. But this has also never happened before either.
Is there a chance she might be his too?
While I’m contemplating it, I see movement in front of the shop. Joaquin and I stand silently, like shadows moving through the night. This kind of shit right here is what we do best, and I get a little thrill from it every time.
It’s the guy in the hoodie. I can smell him from here and Joaquin looks at me with his nose scrunched up too. That smell is foul. Evil. Wrong.
He picks the lock on the front door and goes inside. We follow him silently and both of us tackle him at the same time, all of us landing in a heap.
I press down on his face, smashing it into the ground as Joaquin pulls some rope out of his cut pocket. Why is he carrying rope around? We get his hands tied up behind him, and I say, “What are you doing here?”
“It’s none of your concern, shifter,” he hisses at me in a strange voice. It doesn’t sound human. What the fuck?
“You’ll tell me what you are doing here, and you’ll tell me right this second, or you’ll die. Those are the only two options you have here,” I say menacingly.
“I’ll take the second option then,” he hisses again.
The next thing I know, his body starts to melt and smoke. Joaquin and I jump up in shock.
“What the hell is that?” Joaquin says.
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” I say, eyes wide as we watch this human melt into a puddle of goo. The smell is so bad. We both start coughing and walk away from the body.
“Stay here,” I say. “I’m going to get Shasta.”
He nods, sleeve covering his face trying to block the stench. It smells like a bog in here now. Fuck. I run up the stairs outside going up to Shasta’s place and bang on the door. She answers wearing the shortest little pair of sleep shorts and a tank top, hair falling out of a messy bun.
I’m momentarily stunned seeing my mate this way. Mussed from sleep, rosy cheeked, and wearing barely any clothes. My cock instantly gets hard. Shasta looks down and blushes, crossing her arms over her chest as if to hide her hardening nipples from me.
Clearing her throat she says, “Was there a reason you’re pounding on my door like someone died?”
Oh, fuck. Yeah, the guy. Whoops, got a little distracted.
“He came back. The hoodie guy. We got him tied up and then tried to question him and he melted. I think you need to come down here,” I say, shaking myself out of my lust haze. Gods, I sound like an idiot. Short shorts on my mate are apparently my kryptonite. I feel like a fifteen year old boy seeing boobs for the first time.
“Let me put some clothes on and grab Emmett and we will be right down,” she says, closing the door softly.
I head back down to the shop. Joaquin is still standing over the mess that was Hoodie Guy’s body. I’ve never seen anything like this before. You hear about people taking a cyanide pill when they get caught, but melting themselves?
The fluffiest black cat I’ve ever seen suddenly pops into the room with us. “What the hell,” I exclaim.
“I’m Loki, Shasta’s Familiar. You must be her mate.”
“Did you just mind speak me?” I ask him. He nods, gray eyes solemn.
“Her and Emmett are on their way down, but before they get here, let me just tell you that she got a death threat today and I don’t think she plans on telling you about it. I want to keep her safe and obviously I can’t do that in this form. So, from one cat to another, do your job as her mate and protect her.”
My body stiffens in fury. “She got what today? Before or after the guy in the hoodie?”
“After. Though she already took the medallion to her grandmother for disposal. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy though.”
Joaquin is staring at me like I’m insane. Pointing to the cat I say, “That’s Shasta’s Familiar and apparently he can actually speak in your mind.”
His eyes widen and he makes to walk over to him when Loki hisses and tries to take a swipe at him. Joaquin jumps back. “Well, I guess he only wants to talk to you,” he says with a laugh.
I raise my eyebrows at Loki. He only blinks at me and walks over to wind himself in between my legs. The doorbell rings and I look up to see Shasta and Emmett walk through the door. When Shasta sees Loki, she stops with a look of shock on her face.
Emmett looks gobsmacked too. “What the hell? That cat hates everyone, and I mean everyone. He only occasionally doesn’t try to attack me. I guess he must be showing he approves of your mate, Shas.”
She smacks him in the stomach. “Quiet.” Pointing to the glob she says, “What the hell is that? And what is that smell?”
“Ah, yes, that would be Hoodie Guy. I told you some of what happened already, but when he refused to answer us, it wasn’t a human voice that came out of his mouth. We asked again, same answer in the same strange voice, and then… he just melted himself. Neither of us have ever seen anything like this,” I say.
She looks thoughtful. Walking over to the pile of goo, she holds out a hand as if she is using her magic to inspect the blob. Her face goes white, and she steps away quickly. “Black magic,” she says, looking at Emmett in fear.
Crossing my arms, I look at her and ask, “So do you think this could be tied to the death threat you got today?”
Shasta whips her head toward me, “How the…Loki, you little snitch.”
Loki just flicks his tail and blinks out of the room. Well, it seems he isn’t going to take responsibility and is just going to leave me with a pissed off witch. I’d almost rather he just attacked me or something. So much for feline solidarity.
“So, anyway, can we talk about the death threat?” I ask again.
Shasta sighs. “When I was unpacking books today, I came across a Mrtyu medallion with creepy magic. Mrtyu is the Sanskrit symbol for death. I put it in a magic canceling box and took it to my grandmother. She’s going to dispose of it. No clue who sent it or how it got in the box, though there were issues with the original delivery of those books and Grams believes it might be related.”
We will have to investigate that for sure. In the meantime, I don’t think she needs to be alone just in case. But how is she going to react to me saying that? I don’t know but I can’t imagine she’s going to like it much.
“Shasta…,” I begin, but she holds up a hand to stop me.
“You’re most likely about to say that I’m going to have to always have someone with me. You probably also think I’m going to fight you on it, but I’m not. Dark magic is nothing to play around with and if this,” she gestures to melted Hoodie Guy, “and the medallion are related, then I’d love to have an escort, for the time being, until we figure things out. Especially since dealing with the Society never ends well.”
Sagging in relief, I look to Joaquin, who nods. “Well, the first shift is mine,” I say. “Joaquin, can you go back to the clubhouse and let Ethan know what’s up and tell him I’ll see him in the morning? Don’t tell him about the mate bond. I’ll tell him that part myself.” He nods and waves before heading out.
Shasta waves a hand and the goo disappears. Well, that's certainly handy.
Emmett yawns and says, “I’m gonna head back up. One of us has to work tomorrow.”
“Actually,” Shasta says, “we’re gonna close for the rest of the week. I don’t want something happening while we have customers here.”
“That’s actually a really good idea,” I say.
Emmett nods, “Well in that case, if Kadi is staying, I’m going to go home.”
Shasta laughs. “You just can’t stay away from Josiah.”
He smirks and then wags his ass at her on the way out the door. Their friendship is cute and I’m especially glad that my mate has a friend that she can trust. But now we’re alone and it’s awkward as fuck.
Rubbing my hand down the back of my neck I say, “Well what now?”
Shasta looks as nervous as I feel.
“I guess we can talk a little. I don’t really feel sleepy after all this. Do you want to come up?” she asks.
Swallowing, I think about being alone in her apartment with her. Yes, I’d like that very much but I’m gonna have to get control of myself before I do that. My body is instantly fired up. I never knew the mate bond would be so demanding. Hopefully it’s not just me feeling this way.
The drive to protect her from the danger happening is probably playing a large part in it, but I don’t think so. Shasta is gorgeous, around five and a half feet, maybe a little more and has a curvy shape on the bottom half. That booty will fit nicely on the back of my bike for sure.
“Actually, do you want to go for a ride?” I find myself asking her. “You’ll have to change into something a little more suited to riding. For now, jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and jacket will be ok. We’ll need to get you some real riding gear.”
Her face lights up. Shit. It’s like I’m seeing the sun shining for the first time in my life and it almost drops me to my knees. “Yes!” she says, doing a happy little wiggle and running out the door to go change.
I laugh, following behind her. This is gonna end up being a great night after all.