CHAPTER 1 #2
Somewhere nearby, a car braked suddenly, and the squeal of rubber on concrete almost burst my eardrums. I flinched so hard that my coffee overran the side of my mug and dripped down my hand.
Concern flashed across Amy’s face. “Are you okay?”
I didn’t bother lying. If she focused, she’d be able to scent my anxiety. “Still not used to the city.”
Her brows drew together. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
I cleaned up my spilled coffee and waved her apology away. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”
“You want to head back to the apartment?”
I shook my head. “No. Finish your tea. I need to get used to this if I’m going to live here.”
Wait a second. Live here? What a strange thing to say.
Wasn’t it just a few days ago that I told Michael I could never see myself living here?
So why did it suddenly seem imperative that we stay?
Why did my lungs constrict and my pulse skyrocket when I thought about going back to New Hampshire? Like going home was dangerous somehow.
To me? Or to everyone else?
The harder I focused on those questions, the more elusive the answers became, and the more my hackles wanted to rise.
The only thing I could remember that would explain this sudden shift was Anna telling me I needed to be careful down here.
The way she said it made it seem like we had agreed I stay here.
But I didn’t remember why I made that agreement with her.
Or if I actually had. I only had a vague sense that I had.
What the fuck was going on?
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying and failing to coerce my thoughts into some semblance of normalcy.
Amy leaned forward in her seat. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
I pulled my hand from my face and forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just had a rough couple of days.”
Amy eyed me, clearly unconvinced. She leaned a fraction closer and dragged in a deep breath, frowning as my scent hit her nose. “You’re not fine. Come on, let’s go.”
Her tone brooked no argument, so I gathered my things and followed her out onto the busy sidewalk.
For the first time ever, I began to understand why the Kolbecks muted themselves.
Summer in Boston could be brutal. With so much water surrounding the city, the humidity regularly climbed past the 80 percent mark.
On sunny days, like today, the concrete sucked in the warmth like a sponge and radiated it out in all directions, long into the night.
All this heat and humidity turned the city’s sewer drains and dumpsters into a soup of vomit-inducing yuck.
Right now I would kill to switch noses with Amy. Or a human, for that matter.
“You want to tell me why you’re so on edge?” Amy asked as we walked.
I gestured at a passing car, music blaring from its open windows. “Besides the obvious?”
She nodded. “Besides the obvious.”
I glanced ahead, at the back of a nondescript man in cargo shorts and a T-shirt.
It was Kevin, the bald-headed enforcer who showed just a tad too much interest in me and my abilities for comfort.
The Kolbecks might mute themselves, but their foot soldiers didn’t, and I doubted Michael would be comfortable with Kevin overhearing my response.
“I’ll tell you back at the apartment,” I said.
Amy slanted her gaze at me and pursed her lips.
“You look like your mother when you do that.”
Her expression flattened. “Low blow.”
I grinned. “You’re as easy to tease as Michael.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. I can’t be that bad.”
She wasn’t. I might not have known her for long, but one thing was for certain: I liked Amy. Sure, she had a bit of Mary’s imperious nature, but she was also witty and sarcastic and blunt. It was easy to be around her. The itch between my shoulder blades eased a little in her company.
“You’re not that bad,” I told her.
She smiled back at me. “I like you, too.” A heartbeat later, her amusement fled. Her gaze skirted ahead, to Kevin, and she dropped her voice. “You and Michael need to come home soon.”
The way she said need made it sound imperative, and suddenly I realized that it might be.
The full moon wasn’t far off. I’d been able to calm Michael in the forest, but the full moon’s power might hold more sway over him than I did, and I didn’t know whether or not he would turn lunatic when he shifted during it.
If I wasn’t there to contain him, he might go off the rails.
Or he might not. The critical thing here was that his family still believed that he’d go lunatic, which meant that he had to be with them when they shifted.
If he wasn’t, they’d know something was up.
Poor Michael. Even if he wasn’t lunatic, he’d have to pretend to be. He’d have to stay with them, in his right mind, and watch his entire family lose theirs.
I stopped in my tracks.
Fuck.
They would see his increased size and know something was up. And if he went lunatic, his newfound power might spill out of him wholly uncontained.
“Layla? What is it?” Amy asked, glancing around us.
“Uh… I thought I heard something.”
As far as lies went, it was a lame one, but from the way she craned her head to the side and narrowed her eyes as if concentrating, she fell for it.
“It was nothing,” I told her. “Come on.”
We were halfway back to the apartment when it happened.
Amy and I were in the middle of the sidewalk, passing the mouth of a narrow alley, two guards ahead and two behind. Between one step and the next, every hair on my body stood on end and a metaphysical alarm bell blared through my mind.
Something was in that alley.
I was halfway through turning toward it when a gentle breeze rushed past me, reeking of aether. It sighed as though whispering in a dark language.
Magic.
Beside me, Michael’s sister faltered midstride and doubled over, clutching her belly.
“Amy!” I yelled, grabbing her arm.
The coppery tang of blood filled the air. I looked down and saw a trail of crimson dripping from her nose.
The guards were on us in a heartbeat, converging from all directions to form a barrier of flesh between us and the rest of the street. Goddess bless their cool-headed professionalism, because they did it in such a casual way that to anyone watching, we must look like a group of friends meeting up.
“Where is she?” Kevin snapped.
He didn’t have to say anything else. She was the witch who had just cast some sort of nasty spell on my mate’s sister. I was pretty sure she was in the alley, but I needed to know without a shadow of a doubt before I answered.
I let loose the bars on my power and sent it pulsing outward.
Sounds and smells exploded across my senses.
My eyesight sharpened like a knife, and I turned toward the alley and pushed my awareness into it, only to run headfirst into what felt like a spellwall.
I might not be able to sense what was in there, but the shadows fled from my enhanced vision, revealing a short, curvy woman with curly red hair.
She stood near the back, a hand lifted toward us, her eyes fixed on where Amy huddled in the middle of our group. As I watched, her fingers began to close. I wasn’t willing to risk finding out what happened when they did.
“The alley,” I said.
We didn’t have time for anything else. No battle plans, no brainstorming on how to get to her without the humans realizing something was up.
This witch had attacked us in broad daylight because she knew the risk for exposure would be heightened if we reacted, and she was betting on that to keep her safe.
The witch’s lips parted on another spell, and all rational thought fled my mind. Amy was Michael’s family, and thanks to our bond, that meant Amy was now my family. There was no way in hell I was going to stand there, helpless, while a witch threatened her and her unborn child.
There was only one thing left for me to do.
I tore the cage off my power. Adrenaline punched into my heart, skyrocketing my pulse, which would likewise spike Michael’s. I felt a zing of panic come from him through the bond before I shut our connection down. I couldn’t let him distract me right now.
I was the result of hundreds of years of genetic manipulation, and now it was time to find out just how fast I was.
I prayed that my speed was a true match for a vampire’s, and I could move fast enough to appear as nothing more than a blur to human eyes, like a bird streaking through someone’s periphery.
Time slowed to a crawl as I turned toward the alley. I gathered my legs beneath me and bunched my muscles. Kevin reached out to stop me, his hand looking like it was moving through molasses.
The witch began to cast.
I shot toward her like a bullet ripping free from a gun.