The rest of the wall of thorns fell apart and dissipated into thin air.
The fury that had driven Josiah forward dissipated as well. He looked around at the devastation on the road. Vehicles had been knocked at crazy angles, the beams from their headlights slicing through the scene at random.
Molly was safe. She crouched where he had last seen her while three unknown women surrounded her. The women had placed their hands on her shoulders and arms, their faces etched with concentration, supporting her as she fed him energy and Power.
Bodies lay strewn on the pavement. Turning, he counted six…
Anson.
Maria knelt by Anson’s body, both hands flattened on his chest. No. No. Josiah lunged at them. As he fell to his knees on Anson’s other side, Maria lifted her head. The rain had flattened her hair to her head, and tears poured down her mud-streaked face.
“He’s alive, but just barely.”
Josiah whirled to look at Molly. “Milaya, don’t stop now. I need a bit more.”
Her expression showed strain, but she nodded. The steady flow of Power pouring at him never wavered. God, she was so steady, so strong. A wave of love for her washed through him, so pure and potent, if he hadn’t already been on his knees it might have brought him down.
He turned his attention back to Anson. Magic burns covered most of his face and chest. His breathing was labored and uncertain.
“If you still believe in praying, now would be a good time,” he told Maria. He cast healing spells, holding his breath as each one hovered over Anson’s body before slowly sinking in. Sometimes if the injuries were too severe, a body wouldn’t absorb the kind of healing spells he knew how to cast.
A newcomer joined them. He looked up at one of the women who had been with Molly. “My name’s Lauren,” the woman said. “I’m a healer. Let me help.”
He glanced again at Molly, who nodded as she watched.
“Yes,” he said to Lauren. “Thank you.”
Together they worked on Anson until gradually his breathing became less labored and some of the rawness had scabbed over. Josiah kept casting healing spells until Lauren grasped his wrist, silently urging him to stop.
“He can’t take any more.” Lauren’s hazel eyes were kind. “But it’s all right. Your friend’s going to make it now.”
He nodded and swiveled on one knee to look for Richard. Steven and Henry were with him, supporting him as he sat up. Tracks of blood formed runnels over his face and body.
“Enough,” he said to Molly.
Her face was twisted with effort. She nodded and broke off the Power transfer with a gasp while the two women beside her sagged.
When the steady flow of Power stopped, spots danced in front of his eyes. He swayed and toppled onto his back. Everything felt black and raw inside, and he ached everywhere. His bad leg felt like it was on fire. He had nothing left. Nothing to resurrect, not even if their enemy decided to turn around and reengage.
“Josiah!” Molly fell to her knees beside him. She met his gaze, then closed her eyes briefly. “Thank God. You scared me when you collapsed.”
He rested a hand on her knee. She’d been out in the weather longer than any of them and was soaked to the skin. Her lips had turned blue.
Lauren crouched by Anson’s unconscious form while Maria and the other women checked Richard over and examined the other bodies. Quietly, Molly introduced Sylvie and Delphine to Josiah.
“I don’t understand what I’m looking at,” Maria said. She turned in a circle, staring from body to body. “What am I seeing?”
That drew everyone’s attention. Steven asked, “What is it?”
“They all feel like him. But he left. He was here… right? And then he left?”
“Yes,” Josiah said hoarsely. “I saw what he looks like now.”
“I know,” she replied. When she looked at him, her gaze was hard and shining from visions, her voice sober. “And he saw you too—he saw every one of us. So none of these bodies can be him.”
“Perhaps they’re part of his family,” Lauren said. “Family members can carry the same kind of energy.”
Horror swept over Maria’s expression. “That’s what happened. That’s what he did. He bred.” Then she looked at Josiah. “All this time we thought we were looking for one adversary, but now there’s a whole family of them.”
Richard said roughly, “That may be, but we’re not going to find or fight them anymore tonight. We have to get out of here.”
“Do we put them all in one big grave before we go?” Sylvie asked. Her eyes darted around. “Yes? No?”
Steven rested his hands on his hips. “I think we should leave them. They fought and killed each other.”
“That won’t fly,” Molly told him. “The Volvo in the ditch belongs to a friend of mine. An ex-friend.”
Pebbles on the cold, wet pavement scraped the bare skin of Josiah’s back as he struggled to sit up. Quickly, Molly put her arms around him to help, and he leaned against her strong, slender form.
“We set fire to the Volvo,” Sylvie muttered. “No wait, that won’t work. They’d still be able to read the VIN. We could always bury the Volvo with the bodies.”
Richard barked out an abrupt laugh. “Lady, I don’t know what planet you’re from, but none of us can dig a pit in this forest that would be big enough to hide a car and six bodies.”
“I can do it.” Sylvie gave him a sly, sidelong glance. “If you wanted.”
“Don’t even go there!” Delphine jogged over to the Volvo. “I think we should try to get this car out of the ditch. If we can start it, we’ll just drive it away. Right? There’s nine of us, and our SUV is fine. We leave everything else the way it is, and we go.” She looked around the group. “Come on, everybody who isn’t injured and laid flat on your back, get over here and push.”
“Let’s get Josiah and Anson in the SUV first,” Lauren suggested. “They should be out of the rain.”
Henry, Steven, and Richard carried Anson’s lax form to the SUV while Josiah got to his feel with Molly’s help. “I can make it there under my own steam,” he growled.
“Touchy,” she muttered. She hovered beside him as he limped to the car and eased into the passenger seat. He had to lift his bad leg in with his hands. Afterward, he sagged back, and she leaned in to look at him nose-to-nose.
“I’m still pissed at you,” he told her in a tight whisper.
She nodded, eyes darkened as she stroked his face. Her fingers were icy.
He moved when she did and clenched her to him while she buried her face in his neck. He said telepathically, <God, what you’ve put me through. I aged a decade while your phone was turned off.>
<What I put you through!> Her muffled laugh shook her shoulders until suddenly he wasn’t so sure it was laughter anymore. <Let’s agree to never go through anything like this week again.>
<Never again, milaya.> His mental voice turned husky as he pressed his mouth to the side of her wet head. <That’s a promise.>
He’d had his chance to kill Grigori. He missed it, and he wouldn’t try again. Nothing was worth risking either his life or Molly’s, or their unborn child. Nothing.
Because they would always come first.
* * *
The next three weeks went by in a blur of activity.
After successfully getting the Volvo out of the ditch and starting it, the group went to the new safe house. The least exhausted and injured drove the Volvo back to the motel and collected bedding and supplies while the others tucked Anson into bed.
Josiah and Molly slept on a pallet on the floor beside him. The pallet was hard and uncomfortable, and they were in a basement again. But Molly settled with her head on his shoulder, and Josiah wouldn’t have traded it away for anything. He fell into a black pit and only woke again when she nudged him up so they could settle more comfortably on one of the new air beds the group had set up.
He took the opportunity to use the bathroom and drink a huge amount of water before sinking back into healing darkness with Molly’s arms around him. The next time he woke, he was alone. Her scent was still on the pillow beside him, and his phone had been plugged into a nearby wall outlet.
A quiet growl of frustration escaped him. Most of the time they had just spent together was while he’d been unconscious, and he missed lying next to her. Picking up his phone, he stared at the date and time and then surged upright. Aside from that one interruption, he had slept for over thirty-six hours.
The new safe house was as big, isolated, and ugly as the first one had been, and they’d had plenty of rooms to tuck people into. He dressed in clean jeans and a T-shirt that had been left by the air bed. Then he exited their bedroom and went in search of the others.
Voices sounded in the basement. He limped down the stairs to discover a couple of card tables had been set up. Several of the group were sitting on folding chairs, eating and drinking while they argued.
Anson wore his favorite old bathrobe, his skin patchy where the burns were still fading. Henry yelled something from the monitor/computer room. A moment later Steven chimed in. They were both in the same room. Richard’s face and hands were scored with light scars. Maria and Molly sat together, a little apart from the men.
Everyone noticed his arrival. Molly’s expression lit up, and she hurried over. Putting his arms around her, he sank into the miracle of her presence. “Coffee.”
“Food,” she told him. “You haven’t eaten anything in days.”
“All right. And coffee.” He sat, and Maria put a fresh cup of coffee in front of him along with a full plate of sandwiches, fruit salad, and hard-boiled eggs. Suddenly starving, he dug in. Molly sat beside him, resting a hand on his back.
Relishing her touch in silence, he didn’t stop eating until he had cleared everything off his plate. Then he reached for his coffee and looked around. “Where are the other women?”
“They went home,” Molly replied. “They wanted to stay, but they have jobs and lives of their own. It wasn’t fair for them to hang around any longer, especially since I’m sort of back in hiding again.”
He gave her a long level look and sipped his coffee. “What do you mean by sort of? Either you are in hiding, or you aren’t. And you’d better be in hiding.”
“I’ve been in contact with Frank and Rubio,” she said calmly. “I told them I was attacked again, this time by magic, which is why I ran from the motel. They confiscated Julia’s toiletries along with the toiletries from the families of other partners who work for Sherman & Associates. After a test for magic came back positive, they brought Russell and other management in for questioning. The firm is denying any knowledge of it.”
“Of course they are,” he growled. His gaze met Anson’s. He asked quietly, “How are you?”
Anson smiled. “I’m good, thanks to you, Molly, and Lauren. Getting better every day.”
He relaxed and turned to Richard. “And you?”
Richard nodded. “Nothing that a little aloe vera gel won’t fix. Lauren said the scratches will fade.” Telepathically, he added, <Thank you for freeing me.>
<You’re welcome.>
Henry and Steven left the monitor/computer room to join them.
“And also!” Steven said with a wide smile. “Now that we’re all together and you didn’t die again, Henry and I have figured out that the money hasn’t been coming and going from just one client or company but from several. The main links are the Seychelles and Russian banks. We’re looking at an organized crime syndicate. Our adversary is the head of a prominent Russian crime family.”
Maria looked down at her clasped hands. She murmured, “I keep going over and over everything. He might never have been here until the night of the battle. What I was picking up might have been family members the whole time, but we kept looking for an individual.”
Josiah reached across the table to cover her hands. “I remember it differently. We kept looking until we found him.”
When she looked up, tears glittered in her eyes. “I was so sure.”
“You weren’t wrong,” Anson said gently. “We just didn’t have the whole picture.”
Sitting back, Josiah clasped Molly’s fingers and held her hand against his thigh. He drank some coffee, relishing the rich black brew.
“I’m out,” he said. “Officially, as of right now. We all knew this was coming. As long as Molly agrees with it, I’ll keep funding the coven’s efforts. I’ll be glad to strategize with any or all of you, and I would like to provide shelter if any of you need it. But I will not actively choose to go into battle again.”
Molly’s grip tightened, and a sigh went through the group.
“He may not let you just walk away now that we’ve played our hand,” Anson said. “But yes, we all knew this was coming, and it’s about time it did. You’ve done enough.”
“I’ll do whatever I have to, to protect my family, but I won’t initiate anything.” He shook his head as he replayed his memory of what had happened. “He was right there. I almost had him.”
After a moment, Molly stirred. “I have another suggestion. I’ve been talking with Sarah, the leader of the coven where I now live. A long time ago, she created Everwood as a kind of sanctuary for people who needed one. She has authorized me to offer each of you up to a year’s probation. You may come and live in Everwood to rest and recover while you decide what you’re going to do next—because taking on a large, powerful crime syndicate is a hell of a thing, and you’ll want to consider carefully how you choose to move forward. If this appeals, there would be ground rules you’d need to follow.”
Maria stirred. “That’s very generous of her to invite so many of us. What are the rules?”
Molly smiled. “They’re pretty simple. You don’t bring this fight to Everwood. Not ever. There’s a lot of vulnerable people in that town, and it must remain a protected space. Also, like every other coven member, you would tithe ten percent of your energy and finances to the coven while you’re there. Then you would get to enjoy the community resources along with everybody else. Exceptions are made for those who can’t afford to tithe. While you can discuss whatever you like, wherever you like, you don’t actively practice your coven’s mission in Everwood’s space, and at the end of the year you either need to leave or you need to join Everwood for real.” She made an apologetic face at Josiah. “You’d be under a year’s probation too.”
“Fair enough. Every coven has something similar in their bylaws.” He raised her hand to kiss her fingers. “I accept.”
As the others talked over the opportunity, Molly tugged Josiah’s hand. He rose with her and walked outside to a warm, sunny summer afternoon. Breathing deep, he lifted his face to the sunshine. When he looked at her, she was waiting patiently for his attention, her expression sober.
His simple enjoyment of the summer day faded. Eyes narrowing, he asked, “What is it?”
Her jaw tightened. “I have to go back. I was only waiting for you to wake up so we could talk before I left.”
“Why do you have to leave now?” he demanded, pulling her against him. “You were so insistent about getting here.”
“Well, for one thing, you’re alive,” she pointed out as she nestled against him. “That’s the most important thing. Also, I’ve been busy while you’ve been down. Steven and Henry helped me transfer the contents of my checking account to an offshore one that Steven swears is secure. And the dynamic shifted when the police discovered the magical sabotage in the toiletries. After talking with Frank and Rubio for some time on the phone, I’ve developed a… shall we say… cautious rapport with them. I created an email account dedicated to keeping in touch, and I’ve promised to return if they need me to testify.”
“I see,” he said grimly.
She looked baffled and frustrated. “You don’t sound very happy. I thought that was what you wanted.”
“It was, before I realized how much I love you and need you to be safe.” He rested his nose in her clean, lavender-scented hair. “But go on.”
“I also reestablished my connection with my real estate agent. She swears she can sell my house within a few weeks. If that’s the case, I can sign everything electronically and the money can be wired to that secure account Steven set up for me. I still haven’t figured out how to safely get rid of the Jeep I bought—I assume it’s impounded?”
“Correct.”
She sighed. “And I can’t access the retirement accounts without paperwork, and I don’t know how to get a box of mementos that I’m sure is also in police evidence, but I don’t really have to be here anymore. And Sarah’s sick. She needs my help.”
He tightened his arms. “Yes, you need to go. You’re safer and happier in California. No, I don’t want you to return—but we can cross that bridge if and when we come to it. I just can’t leave quite yet.”
She lifted her head. “I thought you might say that, and I hate it even more than I’ve hated any of this—”
He put a hand gently over her mouth. “I wouldn’t stay to engage. I would only stay to wrap up my affairs and see how my coven wants to proceed, and I can pretty much do all that from this safe house. I need to finish setting up the trust fund for them, if that’s what they want, and Josiah Mason needs to resign while he’s on medical leave. Then he’ll vanish.”
She gripped his biceps and asked telepathically, <That’s all you’ll do?>
<That’s all,> he promised. <I swear it. I should be able to leave in a week or so. If you want, I can see if Frank will let me have your box of mementos, and I’ll bring them with me when I come. Forget about the car. You don’t need the money as much as you need to stay safe. Remember how I said you wouldn’t get out of this financially unscathed?>
She replied, <I remember.>
<And your retirement account is still earning money, right?>
She nodded.
“Then leave it,” he said aloud. “Someday it will be safe for you to access it, but you’ve already proven you’re not dead, and to the police, no less. Nobody can try to seize it without your permission.”
“You’re right.” She straightened. “I don’t have to do anything right now.”
He searched her expression. “So, we have an exit strategy?”
“Yes.”
“One of us will drive you to Birmingham, and you can use your new ID to fly out from there.” He gripped her arms with a suddenness that made her flinch. “I just remembered how mad I am at you.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Then it’s probably a good thing that I’m leaving?”
“It’s never a good thing when you leave,” he snapped. “And don’t you ever fucking hang up the fucking phone on me again!”
She tried to slide sideways as she mouthed at him silently, Fine. Just fine.
But he couldn’t let her go. His skin, his body, his hungry soul hadn’t gotten enough of her, and he was already going to lose her again for days. Pulling her close, he kissed her until it left them both shaking.
When he finally lifted his head, he found that his unshaven beard had rubbed her sensitive skin to a bright red. He touched her cheek gently and cast a small healing spell to smooth the irritation away.
Her gaze grew fierce. She said, “Hurry up.”
He promised, “I’ll be as fast as I can.”