Chapter 6 #2
But my cage wouldn’t contain him for long.
I knew the basics, but the counterspell he was already raising told me he was a far stronger witch than me.
I scrambled upright, yelled, “Ginny, there’s another one in my bedroom,” then ran back into the kitchen, upended my handbag, and grabbed the nullifying stones.
While I didn’t have spell stones of my own—there was little point when I couldn’t raise any truly dangerous magic—these stones had been magically blessed by a number of the Society’s strongest witches.
I hadn’t yet met a witch who’d been able to break them.
Hopefully, I never would.
My cage was already pulsing under the stress of his attack. I quickly placed the stones around him, then activated them with the key phrase. Thankfully, the nullifying magic encased him swiftly, which was just as well, because my own cage shattered into hundreds of broken threads a heartbeat later.
He roared in fury but didn’t touch or otherwise try to break the nullifying globe encircling him. Perhaps its magic warned him it would be fruitless.
I took another deep, and somewhat quivering, breath, then continued on to the bedroom. It had been utterly turned upside down; everything was on the floor—the bedding, my clothes, even the goddamn mattress.
The second man lay on the floor amidst all the mess.
He wasn’t moving, partially because my leash had pinned his arms to his body, but mostly because Ginny, in bird form, was sitting on his groin, her sharp talons digging past his jeans, into his flesh.
The sweat rolling down his pain-filled face suggested she had a good grip on something vital.
I grinned. “That’s the best form of restraint I’ve ever seen.”
The man’s gaze darted to mine. “Call it off, will you?”
I squatted beside him and did my best to ignore the aching complaint of bruised butt muscles.
What I needed right now was a long, hot spa bath filled with Epsom salts.
Considering we didn’t have a bath in this apartment, let alone any sort of soothing bath stuff, I’d have to settle for the painkillers the docs had given me.
“Considering the mess you’ve made of my damn room,” I replied, “I’m not feeling overly charitable right now. What were you searching for?”
“Don’t fucking say anything,” the man in the other room bellowed.
“It’s not your balls on the line here,” Ginny’s captive snapped back.
“And said balls are on the line,” I commented, “so please do answer the question.”
He swore. “We were sent here for a spell stone shard.”
“And did you find it?”
“Wouldn’t fucking still be here if we had. Look, tell your pet to ease up with—”
The rest was lost in a hiss as more sweat broke out across his forehead. Ginny had just tightened her grip.
“That bird is not my pet; she’s a free agent, and I would be politer around her if I were you, especially when she has your family jewels in hand. Who sent you here to find it, and when did they contact you?”
“Luke Marlowe contracted us. He rang us late last night.”
“For fuck’s sake, Gerald, shut up,” the other man shouted. “They’ll kill us if we reveal too much.”
“I’d rather risk their wrath than lose my fucking balls,” our captive yelled back.
I smiled. “Have you worked for Luke before?”
“A couple of times.”
“In Glebe, perhaps? Did you help some old man drive over a cliff in a car?”
He didn’t answer. Ginny applied a little more pressure. He swore and said, “For fuck’s sake, yes.”
“Who was the man?”
“I don’t fucking know. We never do. We just get our orders, do the job, and get paid. Simple as that.”
“How did you know we were staying here, then?”
“Luke gave us the address. I have no idea how he knew it. We never get told that shit.”
Probably so they couldn’t reveal too much in this sort of situation. It did mean that either Luke or one of his partners had followed us here, or Monica had told them—though how she’d have known we were here was the big question.
As was—how had they known I even had the shard? I’d touched a piece of it, granted, but would that have told them I’d kept a piece alive magically? Doubtful. But even if it had, why would they presume it was here rather than handed over as evidence to forensics?
Of course, there was another possibility.
Sienna and Janice both knew I’d found the piece; while I didn’t think either woman was working with the creeps behind all this, it wasn’t like I actually knew either of them.
Besides, the woman from the USB conversation had mentioned contacts in the HCI, so it wasn’t beyond reason that they also had them with us.
But if that were the case, then we were dealing with something far bigger than a couple of fly-by-night baddies.
“If this is not the first time you’ve worked with Luke,” I said, “I take it you have his number in your phone?”
He glanced down at Ginny then swore. “Yes.”
“And your phone is where?”
“Cargos, right side.”
I patted him down, just to be sure he was telling the truth about the shard, then retrieved his phone from the side pocket. “Face or finger lock?” I asked.
“Face.”
I turned the phone on, shoved it into his face, and unlocked it. “What is he listed under?”
He snorted. “Luke. What else?”
What else indeed. Obviously, the whole secrecy gene had skipped this lad.
I found the number, hit it, then photographed the various conversations they’d had along with the number, then tucked the phone back into his pants.
Lowell and his crew could go through the thing more thoroughly once he was in custody.
“Agent Kang?” came a familiar voice from the front door. “It’s Tony and Leonie—you called for backup?”
“I did indeed. There’s one fellow caged just inside the hall there and another contained here in the bedroom.”
“We’ll deal with the man mountain first.” He paused. “Can you release the spell stones?”
“Hang on and I’ll come out.” I patted the young man’s arm. “Be a dear and don’t move.”
He snorted but otherwise didn’t reply. I pushed to my feet, swore softly at the various muscle aches that immediately accompanied the movement, and headed out.
Tony was standing slightly to the side of the big man, his expression amused as he watched my captive, who was swearing like a trooper and attacking the containment shield with clenched fists, getting absolutely nowhere.
Leonie was lowering what looked to be some sort of gun.
“Dart gun,” she said, obviously catching my surprise. “It’s silver coated, designed to punch through containment magic without destroying it. Once he drops, you can release the shield, and we’ll contain and transport him. What about the other man—will he be a problem?”
“Ginny is wearing her alternate form and currently clutching his jewels in her claws, so I very much doubt it.”
Leonie raised an eyebrow and headed in. A second later, her snort of laughter echoed.
Once the substance on the dart had dropped the big man, I retracted my shield and gathered the spell stones.
The magic within them would have to be refueled, but I could get that done in-house—I’d already checked with Lowell that it was possible.
Once the two men were properly confined, Tony cast a spell that wrapped around the big man’s form and raised him from the floor.
“I did wonder how you two were going to get him out of here,” I commented.
“It does make things easier, especially when your partner is a tiny little thing.”
“This tiny little thing can beat your old ass up any day of the week, and you know it.”
She came out of the bedroom, Ginny’s prisoner in tow, the fierceness of her expression muted by the amusement dancing in her dark eyes.
Tony chuckled, directed his prisoner out the door, then glanced at me. “You want forensics in?”
I shook my head. “I know what they were after, and they didn’t find it.”
He nodded, and the two of them left. Ginny came out, her expression pleased and the faintest stain of blood coating her left fingertips. I raised an eyebrow. “Did you nut him?”
“No, just went close enough to scare him.” She grinned. “All in all, that is what I call a good day’s work. Now, what’s this about a fucking shard?”
“I found it in Francesca’s bedroom and managed to save it before it disintegrated. The magic it contains feels odd, and there’s some sort of rune on it.”
“So why didn’t you just hand it to forensics?”
“Long story, but basically its wrapped in my magic, which needs replenishing, and until the specialist bod gets up here, it’s simply easier for me to keep it.”
“When is the bod supposed to be getting here?”
“Maybe this afternoon. There is a problem, however.”
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Of course there is. I need coffee to cope.”
I turned and followed her into the kitchen. “The only people who knew I had that shard aside from Lowell were Jack, Sienna, and Janice.”
“They wouldn’t—”
“I agree, given it is utterly possible the shard can be tracked by the witch it belongs to. But we cannot discount the idea that, given the shard was likely mentioned in their report, someone else in the office is working with our kidnappers.”
“True. Fuck.” She grabbed the kettle, filled it up, then put it back on the stand and flicked the switch on. “What are we going to do, then? We can’t work solo on this. We need their resources.”
“I’ll talk to Michael this evening and see what he suggests. In the meantime, we just continue on as normal and hope for the best.”
She frowned. “That doesn’t sound like best practice to me.”
“Well, if we find anything that can be traced magically—like the shard—then we keep it to ourselves and contact Michael for options.”
“He’s going to love that.”
“When I spoke to him last night, I mentioned Lowell ordering I see Tane alone. Apparently those orders did not come from head office as far as he knows, so investigations will already be underway. I doubt he’ll be surprised at recent developments.”
“So, what’s our next move?”
“I don’t know about you, but I have a phone call to return and a possible interview with a suspect.”