Slade Read online

  He’d do what he could to keep her safe, but he needed her talents, and her help, to get through this magical minefield of a property. They’d made it through the yard, but the house would probably be even worse.

  There was a window about two meters to their right. He’d try to see what he could through it before they went any farther. Motioning to Kate to stay put in the shadow of the foundation, Slade crept up to the glass and peered in as stealthily as he could.

  The room was empty. Nobody saw him from the inside, but he could see through the open door of the empty room into the hall. From there, he could see into another area that looked like the great room of the McMansion. A man was seated on the floor of that room with his back to the window Slade looked through.

  Slade sent all of his senses out, seeking. He breathed deep and recognized the scent of the male from the crime scene, but the female scent was missing. In fact, there was no other scent than the male’s, and no other heartbeat. In the desert night, he could only hear Kate, himself, the man in the house and the two cougars still manning the perimeter like good little kitties.

  The rest of the house was empty. He’d bet his life on it. Which left them with the single opponent he’d seen through the window.

  Slade motioned to Kate, beckoning her closer. He pointed, indicating that she should take a quick look. Her head popped up and then down again, her eyes wide.

  She stepped right up to Slade and spoke near his ear. He liked the feel of her warm body against his, but there wasn’t time to explore the feelings she roused in him. They had work to do and he had to keep his mind on business, dammit.

  “He’s facing east,” she said. “Preparing a ritual. Looks like he is inside a scribed circle. I think they turned the great room into a ritual space. If he’s inside that circle, he’ll be harder to reach,” she added, confirming his thoughts.

  He’d picked up a thing or two about human magic rites in his life, but not enough to claim to be any sort of expert. Which is where Kate came in. She knew a lot more about human ways than he did. Most of his magic was instinctual, and animal in nature.

  “So we need to draw him out.” Easier said than done, he feared.

  “Ideally,” she confirmed. “But how?”

  “Follow me.” A plan was forming even as he moved through the yard toward the front of the house.

  “What are you going to do?” Kate was doing her best to keep up with his fast pace, but he couldn’t slow down. Time was running out before the cougars showed up in force.

  “Stay here and keep watch,” he said as they reached the corner of the house. “I’m going to draw him out.”

  “How?”

  He spared her a smile. “I’m going to ring the doorbell.”

  She grabbed his arm. “You can’t! He’ll realize what you are the minute he opens the door.”

  “Calm down, kitten. He’s never seen me before. I only got here this morning. Watch and learn.” And with that, he used a skill he alone possessed—as far as he knew.

  “Bright Lady,” she gasped, and he knew his little trick was working.

  From one breath to the next, Slade’s strong magical aura just winked out of existence.

  “How’d you do that?” She was shocked by his ability to mask his true nature.

  Kate had never seen, or even heard of such a thing before. If she’d met him now for the first time, she’d think he was purely human. Not a glimmer of power escaped whatever he’d done to hide it.

  “Stay put. You’ll know when it’s time to act,” was all he said before he walked away, heading straight for the front door of the big house.

  She couldn’t believe his audacity as he rang the bell and waited.

  A moment later the front door opened and the man was there, looking annoyed. Slade didn’t say a word, but reached out, trying to grab the guy, and that’s when all hell broke loose. The mage wasn’t going to come quietly.

  He shoved at the air between himself and Slade, using his magical energy to send Slade several yards away, fighting all the way. This was it. Slade had told her she’d recognize the moment to act and this was definitely it.

  Kate summoned her will and the potent and endless magic of the earth, and pulled at the mage, drawing him out of the doorway and down the steps, using his own momentum against him. She drew him right into Slade’s reach.

  While the mage’s attention was split between them, Slade took full advantage and grabbed the man in a choke hold. The mage struggled, but he was a small guy, not very physical, and Kate kept the magical attack on him so he couldn’t do much more than try to respond—and that not very successfully.

  “Can you do that thing you did before?” Slade asked, keeping hold of his prisoner, though the mage was gaining strength as the initial shock of the attack wore off.

  She knew what he meant. Slade wanted her to drain the mage of all his power, as she’d done to Wayne.

  Kate hadn’t done it since Wayne, and she hesitated to strike out at the mage, lest she hit Slade too, but she knew the Goddess she served would help her, if she asked. The Lady would surely know good from evil and only purge the evil one, not the very good man that was holding him. Right? She had to trust that it would be so… as Slade apparently did.

  He nodded to her, holding her gaze, imparting a bit of his courage to her. She nodded back, willing to try.

  Tapping into Mother Earth’s endless fire and saying a silent prayer for Her divine guidance, Kate spoke the ancient words she’d been taught after that first night in the stone circle so many years before. She called on the earth to cleanse the evil from the man and purify his spirit, leaving behind only what power had been good.

  That didn’t leave much. The mage had lots of bad energy to purge and it took long minutes of intense concentration on Kate’s part to do the deed. All the while, the mage writhed in agony as the Lady’s purifying Light poured through him.

  It didn’t stay. It couldn’t stay inside a heart that held such hatred. It merely passed through, taking all his magical power with it.

  By the time she was done, the mage was a mage no more.

  Slade felt the full effect of Kate’s power and was awed by it. She was truly the hand of the Goddess, as the Lady’s purifying Light poured through the man who struggled against Slade’s hold. The power touched Slade too, but didn’t burn. Instead, he felt the welcoming goodness of the Lady’s Light like a balm to his soul.

  It was the most amazing feeling. And Kate—little, human Kate—wielded this power. Slade looked at her with renewed respect.

  The man writhed in his arms, screaming as the power of the Lady’s Light cleansed him. He struggled at first and Slade held him so he couldn’t attack Kate. The hold became one more of support than restraint as the magic drained away until it was no more.

  Slade actually felt it leave and be swallowed up by the earth beneath his feet. The pulsing negativity of the area went with it and the whole place began to glow with power while the Lady’s Light cleansed the earth, dispersing the evil for all time.

  The man slumped in his hold, sliding to the ground. He was empty. No magic. Very little life energy left. He’d tied up too much of his own essence in the evil he worked. Blood magic did that.

  Slade heard running feet and he turned his head to find the entire compliment of Redstone brothers pounding up the path. They were quiet enough, even in human form, that Kate didn’t hear them yet, but Slade certainly did.

  He pulled the man to his feet and shoved him toward the cougars.

  “Don’t kill him yet. He’s harmless for now,” Slade said, knowing the man was aware enough to understand when he jerked in his hold. “He’s been defanged.”

  “Permanently,” Kate added, coming closer and showing a lot more spirit than Slade had expected.

  The power of the Lady was still running through her. She glowed with the Light when Slade glanced at her and he had to force himself to look away. The cougars couldn’t see it, but they probably felt somet
hing when they paused in their headlong rush to take charge of the man that had taken part in the murder of their mother.

  “What did you do to him?” Grif asked, taking the lead, as was his right as Alpha. He looked at Kate with caution in his expression, as if he’d only just realized the priestess had real power of her own to call on.

  “Purged all his evil,” she answered. “Unless he embraces the Light, he will never work magic again.”

  “You can do that?” Steve asked. The cougars spread out in a semi-circle around them.

  “Yep,” she answered, smacking her lips. Saucy. She was enjoying the surprise on the cougars’ faces.

  Especially Steve’s. She had always thought him the most attractive of the brothers. Tall, rugged, capable and handsome in a manly way.

  Kate had once had a thing for him, though it would never have worked out. In all likelihood, he didn’t see her as anything other than some frail human priestess, always in need of protecting from the big, bad shifters. He had treated her like fragile porcelain—when he bothered to acknowledge her existence at all.

  She had always been attracted to the strong, silent types. Steve was that, in spades. So was Slade—though he was on a whole other level than mild-mannered, mostly-silent Steve.

  Slade, now... He was something even more deadly to her soft heart and unruly attraction. He lit her up like a barn on fire and there was precious little she could do to stop her incendiary attraction to the mysterious man.

  “She’s done it before,” Slade backed up her claim. “It’s permanent, painful and has no chance of recovery unless he turns from his evil path.”

  The prisoner gulped. It wasn’t much of a noise, but it was definitely audible to shifter ears.

  The cougars switched their attention as one, from Kate and Slade, to their captive.

  “You murdered my mother, you spineless bastard,” Grif advanced on the cringing man. Slade was a solid barrier at his back. The toad wasn’t going anywhere.

  Slade would rather have done this elsewhere, but it would be best to take advantage of the shock of the past few minutes. Kick the bastard while he was down. Don’t give him a chance to regroup and start thinking. Question him now and see what he spilled.

  Slade scanned the area around the house and realized they were well hidden from the road. The vegetation was overgrown—probably on purpose in this guy’s case—and acted as a shield to prying eyes.

  The front door had an extended entry way that was like a little porch with two big, white columns on either side. Slade backed the man up to one of the columns, pulling his arms behind him, around the fluted white pole. He pulled a plastic zip tie from his pocket—something he’d put in there even before he left Montana, knowing he was going on a mission where he might need restraints—and secured the guy’s hands behind the pole.

  He wouldn’t leave him there long. Only while they had the advantage of his shock to work with. They couldn’t stay here too long anyway. He might have backup that would come to see what happened. Slade wanted Kate long gone and the cougars well hidden long before anything like that happened. But they had an opportunity to exploit the prisoner’s imbalance right now and Slade had been playing this game long enough to know when to take advantage of a situation like this.

  “What do you say to that?” Grif went on. “What do you say to the sons of the woman you killed?” Grif’s voice got deeper and scarier rather than louder, which served them well in this case.

  “I didn’t kill her,” the man whined. “She did it. She wanted her pelt. Not me. I only got the leftovers. And now it’s gone. Gone.” He began to whimper and sob as he probably realized all his power was gone, never to return.

  Slade was almost glad to see him suffer after what he’d done, but another part of him felt sorrow for everyone who had lost so much in this terrible situation. The man’s actions had brought about his own downfall and so much pain for so many people. Such was the way of evil. Preventing it from running rampant through the world was Slade’s raison d’etre. Had been ever since he’d grown up and grown weary of the senselessness of war for war’s sake.

  The only battles Slade engaged in now were against evil. He’d been very careful since his early days in the business to pick his opponents with great care. There had been many in the world who qualified as evil in his book. He’d fought them all at one time or another, but since retiring from active duty and specializing for the Company—and the Lords—he’d been even more selective.

  This was a justified takedown, even though everything about this situation left a bad feeling in his soul. It also left a pain in his heart for the innocent woman who’d been this toad’s victim. The former mage had wanted the matriarch’s power and he’d taken it by taking her blood. That could not stand. That kind of evil could not be allowed to exist. Not on Slade’s watch.

  “Who is she? Who is your partner?” Kate asked in a quiet, powerful voice, drawing Slade’s attention away from his dark thoughts.

  “She’ll kill me.” Terror showed in his wild eyes.

  “You’re already dead to her,” Slade said quietly. “You have no magic. Never will again. She won’t want you. You’re no good to her now.”

  The prisoner sobbed again.

  “I’ll tell you what. You tell us what we want to know and we’ll take you away from here where she can’t find you,” Slade whispered.

  “You’re going to kill me,” the man objected.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Right now, you’ve got information we want. You play nice with us, we might let you go. Too much trouble to hide a body in this day and age.” Slade inspected his fingernails, trying to convey how little it meant to him. “And you’re no danger to anyone anymore. You’ve got no power and no way to get it back. You’re Goddess touched, my man. Your old friends will smite you on sight.”

  The man began to cry in earnest. Pathetic. He was going to crumble like a cookie in a two-year-old’s fist at any moment.

  “I’m sorry,” he cried. “I’m so sorry.”

  Slade looked over at Kate, surprised to his core. Could the Lady’s power have had that much of an effect on this guy so quickly? Kate smiled. She knew something. Maybe she’d seen this kind of reaction before with Wayne. She held his gaze and nodded, and he had his answer. She’d been expecting this kind of change.

  Amazing what the Goddess could do when She put her mind to it.

  “Sorry?” Robert tried to stalk forward but Grif held out his hand, motioning him to stillness. All the brothers watched the prisoner warily, clearly confused.

  “Are you going to come quietly? I’ll be honest with you,” Slade said to the man, who had quieted. “We’re your best option at the moment. And frankly, we’re not going to give you any choice. You either come with us voluntarily—which will be easier for you—or we take you anyway, and probably bang you around a bit, just for kicks.”

  The prisoner seemed to think a moment, then sag in defeat. “I’ll come quietly,” he said finally. “You’re right. I’m already dead if they find me like this.”

  “Good,” Slade said approvingly, cutting the zip tie with a partially shifted claw.

  He nodded to the younger brothers, refastening the man’s hands with another zip tie now that he was free of the column. Matt, Robert and Steve moved closer at Grif’s nod to take custody of the man, but he turned to Kate, suddenly tense.

  “Take the chalice. Don’t let her get it. She needs it for her crazy plan. It’s in the circle.”

  Kate nodded, seeming to understand. “When is she coming? When is she planning to do her ceremony?”

  “Tomorrow night. At the new moon,” he replied. “Take the chalice and hide it. She won’t be able to do what she wants without it.” The man’s terror was fading and with it, his consciousness.

  He seemed open now, telling them things without being prodded, but his strength was failing. Even as the cougars moved close to him, he collapsed, passing out at their feet. They let him fall and he landed hard. Sl
ade didn’t really blame them. He had helped murder their mother, after all. Forgiveness—if it ever came—would be a long time coming.

  “Pick him up and put him in the truck,” Grif ordered his brothers and they followed his instructions none too gently. “Guard him. We’ll be down shortly.”

  That left Slade and Kate with Grif and Mag, the quiet brother who came somewhere in the middle of the brood of siblings. Slade hadn’t gotten a good read on him, but he seemed as steady and strong as the rest of the Redstone brothers.

  “I have to go into the house,” Kate said, taking the bull by the horns even before the prisoner was out of sight.

  “Is it safe?” Grif asked, concern on his face.

  “No,” Slade answered, scowling. He didn’t want her going in there, but he knew they had to at least look into what the prisoner had said.

  “We can do it,” Kate said, meeting his gaze and smiling gently. “Together. Like we did before.”

  Oh, he liked that. Something inside him purred happily at the way she paired them up as a team. The cat liked having a partner in crime that had already proven their skills and courage. The cat inside him liked her.

  It was the man who worried for her safety. He wanted to protect her. Keep her safe. Keep her to himself.

  Hmm. He would have to think about these strange, new impulses she brought out in him. Later. They didn’t have time for self-examination right now.

  No, now was the time for action.

  “Okay,” he gave in, gratified by her smile. “We do this together.” He glanced back at the cougars. “You two will have to act as rearguard this time and wait for the all clear. You can’t see the magic the way we can, and this place was booby trapped in ways I’ve never encountered before. It was hard enough getting across his yard. I can only imagine what he’s got inside.”

  “Understood,” Grif nodded, clearly unhappy with having to take a supporting role, but willing to allow the experts in magic to do their thing.