Chapter 130 Nico
NICO
Like every time Sinthy teleported me, I arrived at the new location and felt a sudden and powerful feeling of dissociation.
It stemmed from being in one place one moment and then in another in less than a blink of an eye.
No matter how many times I did it, it never got any easier.
It was worse this time since I literally had no clue where we were.
Sinthy had simply tapped into the magic tracker she’d put on Maxwell and taken us to the signal.
“Where are we?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
We were in a narrow alleyway. From the sounds echoing in toward us, I could guess we were in a fairly large city.
Sinthy glanced around. “I have no idea.”
“Oh, that’s good. Glad we have that figured out,” I hissed.
“Hold your horses, big guy. Let’s head out and have a look around.”
Sinthy walked toward the mouth of the alley; I followed close behind.
“This tracker thing isn’t like a GPS,” Sinthy said. “It only gets me near the target. I could be up to a half mile off.”
“Information that might have been essential an hour ago,” I growled.
“Yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine. Once I’m in the general location, I can sort of follow the feel of it.”
As we stepped out of the alley onto a busy street, I immediately knew we were in Europe. The people were less hurried, and the architecture seemed old and full of history.
“Wow. Here we go,” Sinthy said, pointing down the street.
I turned in the direction she was pointing. The Eiffel Tower stood large and imposing, its spire pointing toward the heavens.
“Paris? I always wanted to go to Paris,” I said with a shrug.
“Well, next time, it can be a leisure trip. Right now, we need to find Maxwell.”
I followed Sinthy down the sidewalk as she tried to find the trail of her tracker.
The longer I walked, the tenser I became.
The citizens were glancing around and fidgety.
There were absolutely no other shifters on the street.
In fact, I was already getting funny looks.
Shifters always had an effect on humans.
A slight crackle of energy, not quite as strong as a static charge, but always there and noticeable.
When they were all around, most humans either got used to it or ignored it.
Eyes slid toward me as we strolled by. Many were not happy, and others were openly hostile as they saw me and realized what I was.
“Any time now would be great, Sinthy. I think the locals are restless.”
“Hell, I forgot. I didn’t even think of it. Come here.” She pulled me into another alley and murmured a few words.
“What are you doing?”
“Covering your shifter and alpha aura. If you were a mere shifter, the humans would probably not even look twice at you. It would be too faint to pick up, but alpha energy is stronger and easier to register. You’re good now.”
“Are we getting anywhere? Can you tell where Maxwell is?”
“He’s close,” she said, holding her hand up like she was feeling a breeze. “He’s nearby. I can almost taste it.”
We walked down the alley to get away from the people who’d already clocked me as a shifter and walked the street until we came to a small office building.
Sinthy walked past it once, never even glancing at it.
Then at the end of the street, she took my hand and walked back, pretending that we were a happy couple on vacation.
As we passed the building again, she cast a sidelong glance at it.
“That’s it,” she whispered as we stopped to browse at a flower cart.
“The building back there?”
She nodded. “I’m not sure if it’s that exact building, but it’s on that block for sure. We need to scope it out for a while. Make sure no one’s keeping an eye out for intruders like us, and circle the block to narrow it down.”
I glanced away from the flowers and into a café. Through the windows, I could see a TV on the wall behind a small wine bar. Maddy’s face stared out at me from the screen.
“Shit,” I muttered.
Sinthy followed my gaze. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the café to watch the report. It was in French. I was totally lost, but Sinthy was frowning as she watched the report like she was listening.
“Can you speak French?” I asked.
“Isme taught me French, German, Russian, Third Century Wiccan, Sanskrit, Latin, and Atlantean Hieroglyphics. She always said we’d get around to ancient Egyptian, Mandarin, and Greek, but that didn’t happen. I wasn’t a great student when it came to languages.”
“Well, what does it say? Anything new?”
Sinthy patted my hand. “My French has always been rough, but I think I’ve got the gist. The American president is asking that Maddy turn herself in for her own protection. That it’s the best way to ensure Viola doesn’t kill her.”
It was complete madness that the leader of the free world was on the news, asking my mate to turn herself in. Pretty much everything that had happened since the night I found Maddy covered in blood in her bar had been bonkers, so I wasn’t sure why this was so surprising.
My phone rang, and I tugged it out. Maddy was calling.
“I already saw,” I said as I answered.
“The news?” Maddy asked. “You saw what the president said?”
“I did.”
Maddy let out a humorless laugh. “Never in a million years did I think the president would be saying my name over and over on the news. I can’t turn myself in.”
“Absolutely not. If you’re in the government’s hands, our options are limited.
Who knows what kind of spies or followers Viola might have deep in the government?
All it’ll take is for one US Marshal or secret service agent to turn, and then Viola will have you in her clutches.
Nope. I trust Donatello’s island more than I trust Gitmo or some NSA safe house.
Stay there. We’ll figure this out without the government. ”
“Where are you guys?” Maddy asked, sounding a little calmer.
“The City of Love. Wish you were here.”
“Ugh, asshole. I’ve never been to Paris.”
“Well, like Sinthy said, once this is all over, I’ll bring you here. Maybe for our anniversary.”
“I’ll let you get back to it. Have you found Maxwell yet?”
“We’re close. Sinthy is pretty positive she’s found the building where he’s being held. We’re gonna watch it for a while and make sure it’s safe before going in.”
“All right. Be careful. I love you.”
“Love you too,” I said and tucked the phone back in my pocket.
Sinthy and I locked our arms together again, still acting the happy couple, as we circled the block. A small townhouse sat behind the office building. When Sinthy saw it, she almost skidded to a halt.
“Never mind. I was wrong. It’s not an office building. That’s it. That is most definitely it.”
“Positive?”
She nodded. “I can almost taste the spell I put on him. He’s in there.”
“That’s what you said about the office, though. We have to be totally sure.”
“Yes, that was because the magic was so strong it was radiating through that building. There’s more than my spell here. This place is crawling with magic.”
The townhouse was the most inconspicuous place I could imagine. Nothing about it screamed importance. I’d honestly been anticipating a maximum-security prison with razor wire and barking dogs. This was almost too easy.
Sinthy raised her hand toward the building for a few seconds before lowering it and clicking her tongue. “Four people inside. One is definitely Maxwell. I can see what they’ve done now. They surrounded it in a half-assed attempt at an illusion spell. See?” She pointed to an upper corner of a roof.
It took a moment, but eventually, I saw it. The corner shimmered in and out, flickering like a bad lightbulb. Had she not pointed it out, I never would have seen it.
“What illusion are they trying to put up?” I asked.
“Sound barrier, and a very crappy avoidance charm to get people to walk past the place without giving it a second look. It’s a good plan in theory, but whoever did it had no clue what they were doing.
It’ll work on humans, but any magical creature like us would spot it in a second. Like we just did.”
We walked over and leaned against the wall of the bakery. We tried to attract as little attention as possible as we talked.
“I don’t sense any other magical beings inside there. Do you want to hear?” she asked.
“Hear? Inside there? How?”
The witch held a hand up to the house, muttered a few words, then touched my ear with her other hand.
Suddenly, I could hear some mumbled conversations going on within.
I was never going to get used to this kind of magic.
None of the voices were female, so Viola wasn’t there.
I didn’t know if things would get much better. It might be our best shot.
“Are we ready to go in?” I asked.
“Yeah. As we walk up, I’ll remove the charms hiding the house and whatever they have protecting the entrances and exits. I’m sure they’ve tried something, but if the sound barrier and avoidance charms are any example, any other spells won’t be worth a damn.”
I looked into her eyes, then gave a terse nod. “Let’s do this.”
Without another word, Sinthy and I pushed away from the bakery wall and walked straight to the house.
As we stepped off the street and up to the curb directly in front of the stoop, Sinthy waved her hand across the house, and I could feel the spells collapse and vanish.
The men inside must have felt it, too, because I heard shouts and screams.
Knowing our element of surprise would only last a few seconds, I sprinted up the steps and slammed my shoulder into the door, tearing it off its hinges with my shifter strength.
I fell and rolled on the floor, jumping up in a fighting stance.
That’s when I saw that I’d overestimated the fear and surprise the men would feel.
Two guys trained their machine guns on me.