INSTEAD OF LETTING JUDY stew the morning away, we forced her downstairs with us and taught her how to use the weight machines. She particularly liked the leg press and the ab crunch machines Robby had. And then we took turns sparring.

I taught her the basics of using a bo, and Judy was an exceptional student. She even got a hit on Robby during their sparring session, but Robby wasn’t in top form yet, either. However, she didn’t get a hit in on me at all, and I held back; I didn’t want to discourage her on her first match.

Soaking in sweat, she wiped her forehead and leaned against the wall as Robby and I engaged in some sparring matches. He met the mat more times than I did, and he did his best not to let me land on my left ass cheek. But I was sure I’d still need a thorough tattoo cleaning when we were through.

“Think you can call Phillip and see if there are any spells that would break the protections in his tattoos?” I casually asked as we made our way up the stairs. I needed to know whether we just nullified their vampire protections along with breaking whatever spell had been cast over Judy.

Judy nodded and grabbed her phone off the table. “I’d like to know that, too.” She dialed. “Phillip, hi, it’s Judy again.” She smiled and blushed. “No. Nothing is wrong with my wolf tattoo. But I have a question about the other one. Is there any spell that can make that magic void that you are aware of?” She flipped the phone to speaker.

“Not unless there’s a spell that can change someone’s DNA. The protections are not just embedded in your skin; it’s now entangled with your essence. Your physical makeup. It is permanent.” He paused. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I inadvertently ran into a spell breaker, and I was concerned that it nullified my protections like it did to my house.”

He chuckled. “Protections on a physical property can be broken with the easiest of spells. This can’t. Not even the most ancient of spell breakers can destroy the bond the tattoo has with you. Even if you had it removed, the essence cannot be unbound without destroying the host.”

That was some fucking strong magic.

“Thank you, Phillip.” She went to hang up.

“I’m tattooing a vampire later this evening, and we can test it out if you’re still unsure. But it’s dangerous.”

Judy paused and met my gaze. I shook my head.

“What time?” she asked, ignoring me.

“You have to promise not to send in the cavalry,” Phillip said cautiously. “I don’t need my business destroyed by the MDA.”

“I won’t. But I need assurances from you that if the protections fail, you will protect me from the vampire.”

There was no hesitation in his answer. “I will protect you with my life. I would have the full force of the agency brought down on me if anything happened to you.”

“What time?” she asked again.

“Midnight.”

Of course they would rendezvous at midnight. It was the witching hour, and everything in the area around his shop would be closed by that time. I wondered what his normal business hours were and glanced over Judy’s shoulder as she whipped out his card from the table drawer where she had stowed it. His hours were normal nine to five plus “on demand,” according to the card.

“And it’s the address on your card?” Judy asked.

“Yes, my dear. The front door is always open.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you at midnight.” She hung up the phone and turned toward me. “You both are coming with me, right?”

“We aren’t letting you go alone.” I glanced at Robby. The fear in his eyes told me enough, but we had to know whether his tattoo worked or not.

He swallowed and then nodded.

“The tricky part will be getting out of here without Johnson knowing,” he said.

I smiled. “I can compel him to sleep soundly.”

“You are wicked,” Robby said, but that spark in his eye told me he loved the idea.

Judy smiled. “So, we have a plan.”

“Speaking of Johnson, are you going to tell him about the spell?” I asked.

“We have to,” Judy said. “He has to know about this duplicity.” She glanced between the two of us with eyes that seemed to beg for approval.

“Agreed,” Robby said. “He needs to know, and we need to be prepared for him to blow a gasket.” He glanced at me. “And he can’t ever know we took her to that tattoo shop while a vampire was there.” He pointed at Judy. “Otherwise, he’ll have my head.”

JOHNSON CAME IN THE house around six with a crease between his eyes and a vague hello as he took a seat at the kitchen table. Robby pushed a glass of Scotch his way while Judy and I finished preparing dinner.

He took the glass and downed it without a word. It was enough for all of us to pause and stare at him.

“I know where the ancients are staying,” he said. “But I’ve been told to stand the fuck down.” His glass slammed on the tabletop, making us jump. His gaze rose to meet mine, and the muscles in his jaw jumped.

“What are you planning?” I knew that look on his face. I had seen it a thousand times in the situation room. Johnson was a good planner, whereas Robby was an exceptional leader in executing the tactical plans that were dreamt up in that room.

“We’re going in to annihilate them tomorrow.”

“Who?” Robby asked.

“The pack. We aren’t going to sit back and allow them to take over the city, even with direct orders. It isn’t right. There have already been bodies discovered, but they don’t want us to intervene.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to find out why they don’t want you taking them down?” I asked. Going after the number of ancients we saw in the park was high risk, even for the amount of training we had as agents.

He blinked at me. “This from the woman who singlehandedly took down a nest of over twenty vampires?” He cocked his eyebrow. “There are ten of us willing to break the rules to put those bastards on the extinction list.”

“I didn’t take that nest down alone. I had Robby with me.”

“Whatever. There’s ten of us going after them.” He sneered at me, as if five wolves and five witches were more than enough to get the job done.

Robby glanced at me. There was a gamble that I might be lost if they did kill the mother of vampires, but he didn’t argue against taking that risk.

However, I had reservations about him risking his neck along with the members of the pack who fought by our sides in some pretty dicey situations. Johnson was my oldest friend, and I didn’t want to see him hurt or worse, a prisoner in a cell next to Manuel. “I still think you should reconsider. There were a lot of really old vampires in the park the other night. And you said all the parks were off-limits at night. You could get hurt, or worse.”

“I don’t think you should go against orders,” Judy said, finally piping into this debate. She chewed on her lip and then quickly dropped the phrase, “Frange vincula.”

The air crackled around Johnson, and he blinked, shivered, and then looked around like Judy had done when the spell was expelled. “What the fuck was that?” He glared at Judy as though she had done something to him.

“It’s a spell breaker.” Robby leaned back in the chair. “The house is no longer charmed, by the way,” he added after a moment. “And if you hadn’t crackled like a firecracker, you’d be getting a serious beatdown from all three of us.”

“What the hell are you babbling about?” he asked with a confusion-creased brow.

“Apparently someone decided to put a spell on the two of you.” Robby waved a finger between Johnson and Judy.

Johnson glanced at his wife and tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. “Did you know about this?”

She was already shaking her head. “I thought you had done it, but they assured me that you would never deceive someone in this way.”

His gaze moved to Robby and then hardened to the point I thought he’d just burst into either flame or fur. “Your father.”

“And possibly my parents,” Judy added, as if she didn’t want the crowned king of the pack to be taken down alone. “They were desperate for an heir, and I wasn’t in any hurry to settle with just anyone.”

He glanced at his hand, at the wedding ring. “How did we not know?” He looked up at her, searching her eyes before he ran his hand through his hair and then pushed his glass for a refill.

Robby stood and grabbed the bottle off the refrigerator as we plated spaghetti, salad, and bread, putting it down on the table as Robby topped off Johnson’s glass.

Johnson stared at the liquid in front of him and then up at Judy. There was a fondness in his gaze, just like hers, but it wasn’t like the fiery glances they exchanged every time they looked at each other until today. “What do you want to do?” he asked softly.

She rubbed the mark on her shoulder. “Being your mate hasn’t been a hardship, but whatever they gave us made me much more accommodating than I normally would be. I want a job. I don’t want to be locked up in this house playing homemaker and housewife like I have been.”

She had more backbone than I gave her credit for, and it made me love her just a little bit more now that we had forged a friendship.

Johnson nodded with a crooked smile. “Oddly, that works for me.”

I don’t think Judy expected him to react that way. She smiled and straightened her back. “And I want these two to teach me how to fight.” Her finger waggled between Robby and me.

Johnson actually pouted. “You don’t want me to teach you?”

Now she blinked, and her mouth dropped open. “I, I just assumed.”

He smirked in that good-humored way I remembered, which had been absent since they arrived home from their honeymoon. “I’ve always had the same mindset as Robby has where a mate is concerned. They need to know how to defend themselves. So, I can’t think of anyone more qualified to teach you to kick ass than Sarah.”

There was the Johnson I knew, and Judy smiled in response.

“But that still didn’t answer my question. We were coerced into this marriage by a fucking spell.” He pointed at his ring. “Do you want to see if we can make it work, or do you want to call it a day?”

She glanced down at her food. “Calling it quits would make a lot of waves in both our packs.” She met his gaze, and I swear there was a flash of melancholy there.

“I don’t particularly care about our packs at the moment. What I do care about is what you want. Do you want to break up?”

She rubbed her shoulder, and he glanced at the motion, as if trying to figure out what her physical cues were saying.

I looked across the table at Robby, feeling as if we were infringing upon our friends. He lifted his shoulder and focused on his food. I did the same, not wanting to interject my opinion in the matter. Personally, I thought they were good together. More so now that I was seeing the real side of her.

She laughed nervously and twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she shook her head. “No. Do you?”

Johnson let a breath out and his body seemed to relax with her answer. “No. I kind of like this.” He smiled and nibbled on a piece of bread, but his brow was still creased in thought. “But what happens if one of us meets our fated mate?”

“Then we’ll have to have another conversation at that time.” She pushed her food around a little. “I guess what I’m saying is I’d kind of like to get to know the real you.” She snuck a glance at him as she spoke.

“Same here.” He raised his glass. “To new beginnings.”

“To new beginnings.” She took her glass and toasted him. After she took a sip, she said, “Now, how do we get back at those rat bastards?”

“Oh, I like this version of Judy,” I said to Robby.

He chuckled at me. “She certainly has a bit more spunk than the one cast under that spell.”

“I’m right here.” She glanced at us.

“We know. I guess our sparring lesson gave you more balls than I thought,” I said, eliciting a laugh from everyone.

“I’ve always had a mouth, but I’ve never been accused of having balls.” She grinned at me.

Laughing, Johnson asked, “How’d she do sparring?”

“She’s a quick study,” Robby said. “Tagged me with the bo once.”

“You must be rusty,” he said to Robby.

“Hey,” Judy said, setting her fork down in disgust.

“The only one who has ever tagged him with a bo is Sarah, and she’s better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

“I am rusty,” Robby mumbled through a mouthful. “But she’s good for someone without formal training.” He nodded toward Judy.

“Thank you,” she said to Robby. “I had an excellent teacher.” She nodded to me.

I had to admit, it was fun teaching someone. Maybe if we could find our way out from under the MDA, I’d open up my own dojo and teach martial arts. That seemed like an impossible goal, but one I would absolutely cherish.