“One thing I did get from Jeff is that he has been watching. He’s even been keeping notes, he claims, though he refused to let me see them. He said he was going to write up a big report at the end, and that’s why he hasn’t checked in for a while,” Ben told Jack as they sat at his desk. The door to the office was closed, and they were keeping their conversation low, so that nobody could hear.
Ben had also set up some sort of electronic jamming device so that nobody could listen in remotely using electronic means. Jack hadn’t really thought about that, but then again, he was used to working with his brothers, and King usually took care of stuff like that. Listening devices were more of a human thing, anyway. Jack wouldn’t have been worried about such things on his own because he wasn’t going to say anything aloud that a bug might pick up.
With a partner, though, that all changed. So, it was a good thing Ben had come prepared. Jack knew Ben had been some kind of Special Forces soldier. He carried himself well for a human, and he was solid muscle with good reaction time. He moved like a man who knew how to fight, which reassured Jack that, if push came to shove, Ben would likely be able to handle himself in a fight.
There was also the faintly metallic tang to his scent that indicated he carried a number of weapons. Gun oil was just barely detectable to Jack’s sensitive nose, as was the shadowy scent of honed steel. Knives and firearms, no doubt. Jack was glad. Ben might need some advantages if Carol moved against them before they were ready.
“We’re going to call all this in to Ezra tonight,” Jack decided. “If the scat hits the fan here, I want him to know what’s been going on.”
“Good idea,” Ben concurred.
“There’s also a specialist in the cove that might have more information on how we can combat this particular problem. I’m going to suggest strongly that Ezra get her on board,” Jack thought aloud.
“A woman?” Ben asked, one eyebrow rising skeptically. Jack had to remind himself that Ben was human, with human sensibilities. He wasn’t used to shifter women, many of whom were even more fierce than their male counterparts, though much slower to rile.
“A potion witch,” Jack clarified, thinking about Mellie. He’d met her briefly when he’d visited his brothers and their new mates, but he didn’t know the strega potion witch well enough to just call her on his own. “I figured we should try to fight fire with fire. Or, at least, learn how to fight this kind of thing from someone who knows Carol’s type of magic best.”
“Good thinking,” Ben said, nodding, his lips pursed in a thoughtful frown.
They spent the afternoon going over files and discussing plans. Jack really wanted to spend his evening with Kiki, but he knew the mission had to come first. He would do the meeting with Ezra and Ben, but as soon as that was done, he was planning on spending the night with Kiki again—if she’d let him. He suspected she would, despite the fact that he hadn’t been free to spend much time with her at all today.
Perhaps that was for the best, though. It was better not to let the enemy know that they had any special relationship. The last thing Jack wanted to do was make Kiki more of a target. He knew there was some risk to her simply because she’d so far evaded attempts to put her under Carol’s spell with the rest of the workforce, but he figured, with his office right next door, he’d be able to hear if anything untoward happened in Kiki’s domain, even through a closed door. His hearing was exceptional, and he had always been able to sense magic if it was being used nearby.
Ben, too, was a self-proclaimed Sensitive. If the two of them missed something happening right next door to them, then they had seriously underestimated the enemy. If that was the case, they were in a whole lot of trouble.
Planning took up most of the afternoon. Ben and Jack didn’t leave the office at all, and they didn’t hear or sense any signs of trouble from next door. In fact, Kiki had been quiet for the past hour or more, as if she was deep into reading or writing one of her reports. Jack smiled as he stood, stretching his muscles before he stepped out from behind the desk.
“I think that’s all we can do for now. Let’s get Kiki and head out. We’ll have dinner together, and then, I’ll drop her home before our conference call,” Jack improvised, ignoring Ben’s knowing look.
Jack went past Ben, who was still sitting in the chair on the guest side of Jack’s desk, and went to the door. He opened it and peeked out, surprised to find the hallway exceedingly quiet. He couldn’t hear any background noises from the office area just down the hall, which was unusual. Going on instant alert, he signaled back to Ben, who came to his feet immediately.
“Something’s not right,” Jack said in the quietest tone Ben would be able to hear. “Be on your guard.”
“Ready,” Ben said not a moment later. Jack glanced back to see a lethal black pistol held familiarly in Ben’s beefy hand. Jack nodded once. “Just don’t shoot me if I need to go furry.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Ben replied immediately. “I’m loaded with silver.”
Damn. The human wasn’t taking any chances. Silver was poisonous to many different kinds of supernatural folk, including shifters. It didn’t kill Jack’s kind outright, but it was one of the few things that could take a bear down and keep him down for a good long while. Getting the silver out was a high priority, and any missed bits could poison a shifter’s blood, possibly unto death.
Jack nodded tightly, acknowledging Ben’s statement. “I’m going to check on Kiki. You keep watch.”
“Right behind you,” Ben replied. Jack was glad to have at least some backup right now, even if Ben was human, and they’d never really worked together before.
“Something smells off,” Ben reported the moment his feet crossed over the threshold and he was in the hallway with Jack. “Like ozone and…”
“Brimstone.” Jack grimaced as a growl sounded low in his chest. Something had happened out here in the hall while they’d been obliviously sitting behind his closed office door. Shit.
He rushed to Kiki’s door and opened it without knocking. The magical residue hit him in the face, and he had to brace his feet to keep himself from stumbling backward.
“Some kind of ward that dampens sound and sensation,” Ben said, his tone dark. “I can feel it now that we’re outside your office. Fuckers sealed us off behind a ward so we wouldn’t know what was going on around us.”
“Kiki’s gone, and she didn’t go voluntarily,” Jack growled, not caring that the furious bear inside him was aching to get out and rend and tear those responsible for taking Kiki away. “She wouldn’t have left her purse or her jacket, and it looks like there was a struggle in here,” he went on. Ben was at his back, facing the hallway, acting the part of alert backup, though Jack feared those who had snatched Kiki were long gone.
“Damn,” Ben said after shooting a quick glance over Jack’s shoulder and seeing the wreckage in Kiki’s office. “What do we do now?”
Jack heard a loud crack and realized he’d tightened his grip on the doorframe so much that he’d splintered the wood. He finished the job and threw the chunk of wood in his hand down the hallway in disgust.
“We get her back.”
*
Kiki couldn’t believe what had just happened. One minute, she’d been minding her own business, working in her office. The next, Carol had walked in without knocking and demanded Kiki go with her. Kiki had refused, of course, and then, things had gotten violent.
Carol had grabbed one of Kiki’s hands and pulled her out from behind her desk while Bob Boehm had entered the small office behind Carol and grabbed Kiki around the waist. He’d picked her up, even though Kiki had done her best to kick and scream the place down, but they’d done something, and Jack didn’t hear.
The air around her had felt dead, muffled, as if sound wasn’t carrying beyond her immediate position. Jack’s door was still closed, and he didn’t hear her. Panic set in, and she’d fought like a wildcat, kicking out, even as her hands were pulled behind her back. She managed to make a huge mess of her office, so at least Jack would know something had happened when he finally came out to check on her. She knew he would. And then… Then, he’d rescue her. If at all possible.
As she looked at Carol’s self-satisfied expression, Kiki feared that they had greatly underestimated Carol’s abilities. She only hoped Jack would figure that out before he did something rash.
As they dumped her in to a big canvas wheelie bin and rolled her down the hallway toward the warehouse, Kiki prayed as she had never prayed before. Bob had tied her hands together behind her back when he’d been manhandling her and now, as she rolled around at the bottom of the canvas hamper, her arms felt like they were being wrenched out of their sockets. She screamed, but nobody seemed to hear.
The hamper itself seemed to be muffling any sound she made. Could it have been bespelled in some way? If everything Jack had said about Carol’s abilities and proclivities was true, then there was little doubt she’d be able to make it so that Kiki’s cries would go unheard.
The wheels of the giant canvas bin made noise Kiki could just about hear. Dampened by the carpet in the office area, the sound of the wheels changed when the bin was pushed onto the tiled floor of the lab area. Kiki thought maybe they’d stop when they reached Carol’s lab, but no. The hamper was pushed through the lab area and into the production area, then into the warehouse itself.
The place she’d avoided ever since that late-night episode where she’d seen some sort of evil ritual taking place. She’d never wanted to go back to the warehouse. Not after what she’d seen. It seemed all her resolution not to return to the scene of the ritual had been for naught. When Bob lifted the wooden cover off the hamper and she could see where they had taken her, she was right back at that exact spot where the altar had been set up that fateful night.
The altar was back. Kiki’s stomach sank into her shoes as she took in the scene. It certainly looked as if the place had been prepared for another ritual—this time, during the day. Carol had grown bolder since Kiki’s first days on the job if she was willing to do this sort of thing during working hours when anybody might see.
Of course, if she already had everyone at the plant under her spell, Carol could afford to be bold. Nobody would interfere. On the contrary, they’d probably all be lining up to partake in the ritual. Sheep to the slaughter, Kiki thought, only she hoped the image that conjured wouldn’t turn out to be literal.
“Bring her up to the altar,” Carol instructed Bob, looking down into the hamper where Kiki was on her knees, trying to keep her balance.
Bob reached down and lifted her with his hands under her arms. Someone else grabbed her legs, and together, they carried her to a chair that had been set up in front of the altar. Kiki tried to kick free, but the janitor’s hands—she finally recognized Jeff as the guy who held her feet—were surprisingly strong.
They deposited her in the chair none too gently, then Bob fasted her ankles to the chair so she couldn’t get up and run away. Her hands were still bound behind her back, so she had to sit forward a bit to ease the pressure on her shoulders. She was completely uncomfortable, but she was certain Carol either didn’t give a damn or was glad of causing Kiki pain.
“What are you doing?” Kiki asked as Carol began laying a line of…something…in front of Kiki and making her way around the altar. Whatever the substance was, it poured like water but looked like tar once it was on the ground. Kiki felt echoes of the evil that had created it, sending shivers down to her bones.
Carol didn’t answer. She was too busy speaking vile words under her breath that Kiki couldn’t bear to hear. Evil words. A ritualistic chant calling on dark powers. The bitch was casting a black ward around Kiki, herself, and the altar.
Kiki felt panic take hold. This could not be good.
When Carol had finished making her circle and closed it back in front of Kiki with a resounding magical snap of the ward going up, Kiki wanted to cry. She was sealed inside this ring with a madwoman, a black altar and whatever Carol planned to do. Kiki couldn’t move, and though she’d been fighting her bonds all along, they hadn’t gotten any looser. She was a sitting duck.
Carol lifted her head once the ring was complete and took a deep breath. Her smile was pure evil as she turned to look at Kiki.
“Now…we wait.” Carol surprised Kiki with those words. She thought for sure the next item on today’s sinister agenda would be Kiki’s death, but for whatever reason, Carol was waiting for something. That made Kiki curious.
“What are you waiting for, exactly?” she dared to ask.
“Your boyfriend,” Carol answered easily, making Kiki frown. “He’s the real prize here. I want him, and I believe he’ll come to get you. He’s foolish enough that he’ll probably trade himself for your safety. I’ve seen it before. Shifters can be so stupid.”
Shifters? Kiki didn’t quite understand what Carol was talking about, but whatever she was getting at, she apparently believed Jack was the prize she was really after. Kiki was just bait in a trap to get to Jack.
Somehow, that didn’t make Kiki feel any better. She loved Jack. She hadn’t been prepared to really admit that to anyone, just yet—even herself, apparently—but to hear Carol threaten him had brought everything into much sharper focus. She loved Jack and didn’t want to see him fall into this trap, even if it meant more peril for herself. She had to figure a way to warn him.
“Nothing to say?” Carol asked Kiki with a sickly smile. “That’s okay. I never liked you anyway, you know. You’re too insipid. This is going to be fun.” Carol’s eyes widened as her smile turned psycho.
She leaned over and pulled a knife off the altar. Kiki could see the highly-decorated hilt as Carol held it up to the faint lights of the warehouse. It was silver with all sorts of arcane symbols. Some of them, Kiki recognized, but they were all wrong. The star in the circle was upside-down. The two points on top forming devil’s horns, according to the teachings of her kin. Evil.
Likewise, some of the other symbols were recognizable as something she’d seen in her family teachings, but reversed or changed slightly to be something…not good. Kiki shied away from the sharp tip of the blade when Carol brought it close to her face. Carol laughed, and it sounded more like the cackle of a witch out of some dark fairytale.
“I just need a little bit of blood,” Carol said in a sing-song tone, tracing the tip of the evil dagger down over Kiki’s cheek and then on to her neck. She paused with the tip at Kiki’s jugular. “It would be so easy to plunge my athame into your neck and end you right now. I’ve wanted you dead for a while—ever since you interrupted my ritual that night.” Kiki sucked in a breath while Carol chuckled. “Yes, I knew you had seen us. I let you go to see what you’d do. As it turned out, that worked to my advantage because, somehow, you lured a shifter into my web. For that, I’ll let you live a little longer.” The deadly blade moved lower. “I need you alive a bit longer to seal the deal with the bear.”
“What’s this?” Carol asked, using the tip of the blade to lift the silver chain that had been secreted under Kiki’s blouse. Kiki felt the pentacle rising out of her shirt until it was visible to Carol. Kiki’s eyes sought the other woman’s, wanting to see her reaction. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re a witch?” Disbelief colored Carol’s words, and Kiki found it insulting.
She realized in that moment that she could not let Carol know that she was the weakest of a long lineage of truly powerful magic users. If Kiki died here, Carol might very well go after her family, and Kiki couldn’t bear the thought of that. Instead, she tried to invent a story that Carol might believe.
Kiki shrugged one shoulder. “I dabble,” she said. “A good friend of mine in school was Wiccan, and he got me interested. It was my way to rebel, I guess. Believe it or not, I used to dress Goth.”
Carol let the chain drop, leaving the pentacle outside of Kiki’s shirt as she gave Kiki a sideways look. Kiki wasn’t sure if Carol believed her or not, but she left the pentacle in place, which made Kiki feel like she’d at least won a small victory. And, for some unknown reason, Carol hadn’t spotted, or didn’t care about, the little ribbon around Kiki’s neck that held the herbal sachet she’d picked that morning.
“You can keep the trinket for now, but it won’t do you much good against my power,” Carol gloated as she returned the blade to Kiki’s skin, tracing down the opening of her blouse. Pausing, Carol dug the blade into the skin just over Kiki’s heart, collecting a bit of her blood on the tip.
Leaving Kiki for the moment, Carol went around behind the altar. Kiki had to strain to see what Carol was doing behind her, but it looked like she was putting the little drop of Kiki’s blood into a bowl that was on the altar. Damn. She was probably making some kind of potion, though what it might do, Kiki had no idea. She only hoped Jack would figure out what was going on before he barreled in here, guns blazing.