His eyes widened as he slowly rose to his full height. He wiped a drop of blood from his lip with the back of his hand. Then looked at it. When his gaze came back up, his eyes gleamed.
“I wondered when I might see another of your kind.” The pitch of his voice changed slightly, dropping just a bit. Putting on a little gravel.
He changed his voice to best affect whomever he was talking to. Strange.
“There is no my kind. I’m just a bounty hunter. It’s her you feel.” Reagan gestured at me, and I realized she’d put herself on the line in my defense. She might hold back her magic when defending herself, but she didn’t hold back when it concerned me.
My heart swelled. She was sometimes the worst friend imaginable, but underneath her love of torturing me, she was loyal and pure of heart.
“I can feel her magic,” the man said. “Its essence. She has been touched, but at her core she’s still just a mage. You…are not a mage. You…are the Heir. I have met two of you. I have known one. All the other Heirs have expired. But you have the right current through your blood. I feel it. You are true. He will know, soon enough.”
Reagan jutted out a hip, studying the stranger. “My, my, you’re old, aren’t you?”
He didn’t answer, and his expression didn’t change.
“And you’re a druid?” she asked.
He stared.
“Not much of a talker, huh?” She nodded as jogging footsteps sounded from the other side of the bar. Emery came into view, looking around wildly. He caught sight of what was going on and slid to a stop. His eyes pinned to the stranger, and the vibe around him turned brutal and savage. He thought I was in danger, and it didn’t take a genius to know that he would lay down his life to protect me.
My heart swelled even larger. Electricity sizzled through the room, kissing my skin and infusing my core. Even from the distance, our magical energies joined and hummed. My current cracked-up serenity balanced his fire-spitting wildness.
“You,” the stranger said, his voice raspy now. His features did alter this time, anger, pain, and fear rolling across them so quickly that I almost missed it.
“Yes,” Emery responded, magic weaving through his fingers. “I know how to circumvent your magic. If you make a move toward her, you will not see tomorrow.”
“You killed one of my kind,” the stranger said, no inflection in his voice.
“Yes,” Emery replied. “It was self-defense.”
The stranger nodded, his head jerking up once, then back down. “We are banned from taking contracts on you. You are too much of a liability.” Emery didn’t react. The stranger turned his attention to Reagan. “We are also banned from taking contracts on any of the Heirs, through our respect of Lucifer.”
“That doesn’t make me like you better,” she said. “What’s your move here, bub? The cops are nearly here. We haven’t got all day.”
It wasn’t until then that I heard the wails of the police sirens. Yet the bar still felt quiet. No one had entered to check things out. Joe hadn’t come back in to assess the damage or throw insults at Reagan.
It was as if a veil had dropped around our small gathering.
The druid’s clear blue eyes were trained on me. “But my decision had already been made. You are pure of heart, which has earned you the loyalty of those around you. It is commendable. They judged wisely, touching you. I will take the contract to protect you.” He stared at the air in front of him before his eyes flashed, as though illuminated by a light bulb. He pushed the invisible wall Reagan’s magic had created, and I felt a shift in the magic. It didn’t falter, as far as I could tell, but he’d moved it.
Reagan took a step back, as though startled, and her eyebrows dipped. She was a lot more impressed with his moves than I was. “Can you do that with all Underworld magic, or is mine just underdeveloped?”
“Yes,” he said as Reagan released her wall. He stalked forward. “Yours is fully developed but not fully utilized. You still have much to learn.”
“Yeah. Story of my life,” she said, and in that moment, she sounded like I did most of the time. It was nice to know I wasn’t alone.
“When does the contract start?” I called as he neared the door. “And does it protect me from my mother?”
16
Emery let out a shaky breath as he let the weave he’d finished drift back into his surroundings. His legs shook and a bead of sweat dribbled down his temple. That druid was more powerful than the one he’d fought. Older, too, judging from the fact that he’d talked about knowing the other Heirs of Lucifer, people who hadn’t been around for hundreds of years. Emery hadn’t realized druids lived that long.
“That was a trip.” Reagan nervously chuckled and smoothed her hair along her head. Sirens wailed close by. Blue and red pulsed in the frame of the doorway. “That guy’s power was intense. It nearly made my eyes water. Did you see him push my magic back? No one has ever done that before, not even demons.”
“Yeah.” Emery shook his head as footsteps approached from the back of the building. He remembered the feeling that had nearly kept him from re-entering this front section of the bar a few moments before. If not for the knowledge that Penny was still inside, he probably would’ve found somewhere else to be. To go back to her, though, he’d fought the odd feeling.
He’d had no idea druids could do that, either.
“I must’ve gone up against a younger druid,” he said, spanning the space still separating him from Penny and Reagan. “I don’t think I would’ve gotten out from under that one.”
Reagan let out a shaky breath, and Emery could see that she was equally gobsmacked. Penny, on the other hand, dusted herself off as though nothing had happened. She didn’t seem to be affected at all.
“You okay?” he asked as he reached her. She gave him a confused look.
“How did I know I’d come back into my ruined bar and find you standing around?” Joe said as he walked in, sports sweats swishing with each step and his chest bare.
“Your bar is…” Reagan looked around with raised eyebrows. “Mostly fine. Just a few scratches.”
Piercing sirens stopped just outside the bar. More shifters in human form filed into the bar, all hurrying to get some clothes on after their shift.
“They were coming for you, not her,” Emery said, motioning for Penny to get moving. “The battle has begun. Tell Roger. His people need to get out of sight.”
Joe’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded slowly. “I’ll pass it on, though it’ll probably be faster for your people to contact him. I’ll be dealing with a bunch of police tape”—he shot Reagan a scowl—“again.”
“I’m starting to get the idea you are holding a grudge…” Reagan said.
“You might not be fighting, but you’re still a target, Joe,” Emery said as Penny weaved together a concealment spell. “You all need to lie low. Keep your family safe.”
Joe nodded and heaved a sigh. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking around at the bodies littering the ground, the various holes and burns, and the debris from whichever mage had blown in the back area. “I must have bad luck,” he murmured.
“Come on,” Emery said, helping Penny finish the spell before draping it over them. Reagan ducked in, keeping her hands low.
“This is way easier than taking off running,” Reagan said as they stepped out the door. Policemen were blocking off the surrounding streets and surveying the damage.
They wouldn’t be able to get the rental car out of there. They’d be stopped immediately.
“We need to hoof it.” Emery led them to the right, where the cops were just putting up a barricade to keep people off the street. The sun had disappeared into murky darkness, only splotches of magenta and tangerine splashing the sky. “Maybe we should call Darius. Vampires will be out shortly.”
“The mages weren’t expecting us in that bar,” Reagan said as they neared the corner. Another police car pulled in. She pushed Penny to turn the corner and put distance between them and the human authority figures. “Did you leave any of the mages alive to report back to the Guild?”