Chapter 5 - Byron

The cameras in the Metropolitan Ball Room are spectacular—crystal clear, and equipped with zoom. It makes it very easy to keep an eye on Olivia as she moves through the ballroom, chatting and clearly asking the bartender for water that looks like a cocktail.

As always, she looks beautiful, even if I'm not a fan of the wig she's wearing. It makes her look too much like Veronica. I rub a fist against my chest, realizing I miss the familiar bright pink shock of her hair, and hate seeing her in these wigs that make her feel even more foreign to me.

Immediately after hanging up the phone with Olivia, I'd put a hand to my head.

"Stupid, stupid," I'd muttered, shaking my head against my palm and closing my eyes.

"Careful," someone had said, walking in behind me. "Say it too much, and you just might make it true."

"Oh," I'd said, standing up straight and coming face-to-face with Triste, the new Rosecreek mage. Tall and severe-looking, with blond hair so light that it's practically white, Triste cuts a shocking image.

"It's about your hair, no?" Triste asked, venturing further into the room and taking a seat on one of the chairs, crossing her legs under her robes.

"How did you—"

"Byron," she'd said, tilting her head. "Come on. Magic."

"You can read people's minds?"

"No, I'm just fucking with you. Your hair has been rejecting bleach and dye for around a year, right? Just getting worse and worse? No matter how much you try to tame it? I noticed that and knew it would only be a matter of time before you came to me to figure out what was going on."

"Well?" I asked, crossing my arms. Too often, it felt like mages spoke in riddles, dancing around what I really wanted to hear. I hated dealing with them during our other missions.

"Obviously, you're aware that the shifting ability comes from a specific gene," she'd says, spinning a little in her office chair, before looking up at me.

"Yes," I'd said, having heard Rosa and Maisie talk about it while I sat with them in the lab. Back when Rosa was looking for the antidote, and Bigby was busy with other things, I'd been her de facto guard dog, which meant I learned a lot about chemistry that I didn't care about.

I also learned a lot about her and Bigby that I would rather not have known.

"Well," Triste said, lacing her fingers together. "It's not all science, as Rosa and the others would have you believe. There's a little touch of magic in the transition—it's how some shifters are able to master being clothed when they return to their human form."

I'd reared back a little, shocked.

"That's a thing?"

"Yes," Triste had laughed, standing and wandering over to the refreshment table, grabbing a plastic cup, and pouring herself a glass of water. "It's a thing. I'm surprised you lot haven't learned to do it—to wield the minor amount of magic you possess as shifters. Surely, it would come in handy during your missions."

"Yeah," I admit, thinking back to all the times I decided not to shift because I'd be left without my clothes if I did. Or, having to strip all my clothes off before shifting, and trying to find a good place to hide them. "It would. But what does that have to do with my hair?"

"Oh," she'd said, taking a bite of a cookie and smiling, "forgive me, I forgot what it was you came here for. As the pack mage, I thought I would be entertaining more questions and be more involved in your training, but I've mostly just been sitting in my office alone, when I'm not working with Veronica. This is a welcome conversation."

"My hair?"

"Right," she'd frowned, swallowing another bite of cookie. "Well, like I said, there is some magic in your body, and it's disturbed by…something."

She'd stopped, assessing me, and I'd stiffened, fairly certain I already knew what the disturbance was. I'd decided that if she started to mention Olivia, or bring up mating, I would just turn and walk out the door.

"Nobody will be able to identify the source of that disturbance except you, of course," she'd said, finishing off the cookie and licking her fingers. "But once you right it, the magic will stop interfering with your hair choices."

"That is so fucking weird," I'd said, pinching my nose.

"If you ever want to learn more about the magic," she'd said, clearing her throat and taking a sip of her water. "I'd be more than willing to chat with you about it—"

"Thanks, Triste," I'd said, turning and stomping out.

Resolve the disturbance. What a vague quest to be on.

Now, on the screen, a man approaches Olivia, and I bristle at how he looks at her. Tapping at my keyboard, I quickly use facial recognition to get a read on him—the mayor. Just perfect.

I watch him as he watches her. Hungry eyes, a suave grin pointed in her direction. My fingers itch to interrupt this little moment, to turn off all the lights, start the fire alarm, or pull the plug on the sound system. Anything to cause a disturbance.

I could text his assistant and claim his wife or child is in trouble. Re-route a helicopter to land on the roof of the building. Hack into the security system and list his face as a most-wanted criminal, so every AI camera instantly identifies him and alerts the authorities.

But I won't. Even if watching Olivia flirt with him makes my throat feel like a boulder in my neck. My rational brain argues with me, pointing out that I had my chance and threw it away.

You don't own her .

Except that I do. We own one another. If ancient lore about the mating bond is to be believed, we're two halves of the same soul, or some bullshit like that.

The mayor chatting with her leans forward, and I do, too, trying to read their lips, to hear what they're saying. Is this part of the mission? Or is she just flirting with him for fun?

Moving to my other screen, I tap away, gaining access to the microphone on his phone so I can listen to their conversation. Looking back at the live feed, Olivia's moved away from the bar and is leaving the room with the guy. When she gets to the doorway, she bumps into someone.

"Oh," I hear her say, waving her hand loosely. "I'm so—"

" Numina divom —"

Recognizing that as the beginning of a curse, I rip my headphones off my head, breathing hard, watching in disbelief as Olivia sways, then crumples, the man she was talking to at the bar grabbing her effortlessly, hoisting her up into his arms.

I can't help myself from thinking I told you so as I watch her go down. When we were training as a team with the agency, the commander made us memorize several popular curses so we could avoid them the moment they were uttered. Let the curse get to the end, and you're fucked.

Cautiously, I put my headphones back on.

"Too much to drink," I hear the mayor say to a passing couple. Olivia bounces in his arms, and my blood rises a thousand degrees. What the fuck .

This time, I follow my urges, and I move to my other computer, tapping furiously, bringing up the smart controls for the building they're in.

Aris , I send, pulse skipping, huge problem in Minneapolis. Olivia was just fucking cursed .

It's late. Aris is probably cuddled into bed with Linnea, watching a late-night show. Or maybe he was asleep. For the first time in my life, I don't give a fuck how he feels. I just need him to help.

How do you know ? he sends back, then, Sending back-up now.

By car, we're about an hour's drive to where Olivia is. If we want to get to her, we'll need to use the helicopter.

It's urgent, I send, ignoring the question about how I know for now. Send the chopper.

After sending that, I zone back into what I'm doing on the computer. Luckily, my brain has taken over on autopilot and already started executing commands.

To better accommodate all guests, the ballroom has a completely online and in-sync environmental system. This means you can control all elements of the ballroom once you're in the system.

It allows party planners to control elements like temperature, lighting, and ambiance. I'm using it to stop this mother fucker in his tracks.

Tapping into the safety controls, I do the first thing I know will bring Olivia's abductor to a standstill, at least for a moment.

I release the sprinkler system, triggering the safety protocols to believe there's a fire in the ballroom. I hear screaming and squealing through his phone speaker as people cover their heads.

As I predicted, this slows him for a second, but he still slips into the external hallway. I click over to the other camera feed with one hand, returning to the other computer, and typing as fast as I can to execute the command.

At the last possible second, before he slips out the front door with Olivia in his arms, I lock the grand front doors to the ballroom. He reaches out and yanks on the door, but it doesn't budge.

His accomplice, who hissed the curse, is nowhere to be seen. Our kidnapper is alone, and he's clearly panicking.

People start to filter into the hallway, and confused looks are exchanged when they see him holding her.

"I think she's having an allergic reaction!" he says, setting her down on the floor. "Someone unlock the front doors so we can get her help!"

Once Olivia is out of his arms, I turn, pulling down the microphone on my headset and tapping into the communications feed for security at the event. Quickly, I have the computer pull up profiles for all the security members, and, using voice samples from their social media accounts, I'm able to throw a filter over my voice to emulate them.

"Code Black, I repeat, Code Black," I say, using a filter for the captain of the crew, broadcasted to the rest of the team. I watch as the security detail, who were, up to this moment, trying to find a way to stay dry, start to scramble, realizing they're still on the job.

"Mayor in the foyer. Believed to be an assassin in that room. Remove the mayor by any means necessary."

Yes, sirs , chorus into my headphones, and I wonder if this is what Aris feels like every day. Tapping back into the mayor's phone, I hear him growing more panicked.

"Someone open the doors!" he yells, just before three of the security detail rush into the room, grabbing him by the arms. He thrashes to get away from them, but they pin his arms down, dragging him from the room.

I can't help but stifle a laugh, enjoying the sight of him being hauled away. I zoom in on Olivia, eyes straining, and see her chest rising and falling, relief flooding through my body.

She's alive, at the very least.

But I know curses can be nasty things.

Aris ?

Bigby, Rafael, and Ado are halfway there. ETA 10 minutes. How did you know?

I may have been monitoring, I admit, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment. When I opened them, several women gathered around Olivia, looking worried.

Sitting in my chair, having done everything I could think to do, I watch Olivia on the screen until Aris sends an update.

They're outside, he sends, can you unlock?

Tapping the commands, I quickly unlock the outside doors and watch Bigby, Ado, and Rafael enter, locating Olivia and taking her. Some of the women protest, but Rafael stops to talk to them, and they calm down immediately.

I wonder if that's some sort of vampire power, and make a mental note to ask him about it. After returning all the systems to how they were and scrubbing any evidence of my tampering with them, I change all of the mayor's profile pictures to a naked photoshopped image of him, then shut down my computer, grab my laptop, and make my way to the pack center when I feel Olivia getting closer.