36. Sam

Chapter thirty-six

Sam

I creep out into the living room only after I feel Drew and Adam leave the wards. One of Drew's hoodies is hanging over the back of the sofa and I glare at it out of the corner of the eye, pretending to watch the TV until I give in and tug it over my head. It buries me, of course, but I let out a sigh and snuggle into it, trying to ignore the way I'm greedily inhaling Drew's scent.

Maybe I can keep it together when they come back. My face burns, and I bury it in my hands.

It's bad enough I can hardly look at Drew without seeing my own failure to protect him. But trying to use Adam like that?

I'm fucked. And not in a good way.

I might have to—I swallow hard, feeling my magic surge.

I might have to break things off with both of them.

I flip through the channels, not looking at what's on. It's probably for the best. They know some of who I am, where I'm from, but they'll probably hate me when they learn the truth of it. When they learn what I did. Maybe Adam's killed a human or two before, but I doubt it. Drew clearly hates the idea of hurting anyone .

How could they want me once they learn who I am?

I drop the remote on the floor and groan as a sudden headache strikes me. I never should have given in. I never should have had that first night with them. Kieran won't want me to go, but I have to, don't I? He's going to fight an alpha wolf for his brother. He'll never give Drew up again, and I can't blame him for that.

And Adam? Lucien would never cut ties with him, and I couldn't ask him to.

Maybe I could stay with Ophelia and Dante. I get to my feet and pace, ignoring the way Drew's hoodie falls to my thighs, the way it feels like he's wrapped around me. If Kieran needed something, then he'd be able to find me. I could see if Pris has room, too. I stayed in her flat before. I could do it again.

My head snaps up when I feel Drew cross the wards again. I don't know if I can face him. I don't know if—

I pause a few steps from my bedroom door.

Something's wrong.

Where's Adam?

I head for the door, but Drew bursts through before I can reach it, breathing hard. Blood streaks his face and my magic surges up, desperate to lash out and kill whoever's hurt him.

"Adam," he says between heaving breaths. "Mages found us. Took him."

I'm by his side in an instant, steering him to a chair. He tries to fight me, but I press my fingers into his shoulders and shake my head. "Take a breath." There's a lot of blood, and I see where it originated, his hair matted and wet. There's no wound beneath, but the skin of his scalp is an angry red. "Fuck. What did they do to you?"

My voice comes out a growl and when Drew sits, he looks up at me with wide, dark eyes. He's paler than I've ever seen him, but his pupils are dilating like normal, so at least he's not concussed.

"Hit me with a spell. I don't know. It doesn't matter. They took him."

The last sentence is full of pain, sharp and jagged, and it reverberates through me, settling deep in my chest.

"Your head, Drew. How is it?"

It takes him a second to catch my meaning. He presses his fingers to the spot and winces.

"Hurts, but it's healing. We need to—"

"Stay there," I say, even as everything inside me aches to storm outside and tear the city apart. I stalk through to the bathroom instead, grabbing a first aid kit from under the sink.

Drew tries to push to his feet when he sees what I'm holding, but I shove him back down again. When I straddle his lap, he lets out a squawk of surprise. I need to be close to him and I need him to stay still.

This seems like the easiest way to ensure both of those things.

"Turn your head."

I wipe the worst of the blood from his skin, but all the scratches and grazes are healing now, too. Drew's shaking hands land on my bare thighs. Slowly, his breaths start to even out.

"I'm okay," Drew murmurs, so quietly I almost don't hear him.

"I know," I reply, harsher than I mean to. "Sorry. I'm not mad at you. I'm pissed they got him."

The mark on Drew's head is already less red-looking than it was a few minutes ago. It'll be gone soon. Drew grabs my wrist and looks up at me.

"There were four of them," he says, all in a rush. "Three mages and Elliot. One of them tried to hit me again, but Elliot told him to stop. He teleported them out of there. I tried to get up, Sam, I tried , but they vanished right in front of me."

My stomach sinks. "I can't—I can't track that," I say. "That's the point of those kinds of spells. That's the whole—The problem we've been having."

Drew's pulse flutters in the base of his throat. He sways a little where he's sitting, and I push the first aid kit aside, almost knocking it off the chair before I wrap my arms around his middle.

He makes a quiet noise, sounding almost pained, and I sit back again. "Did I hurt you?"

"No," Drew says, and when his eyes meet mine, he looks devastated. "But I know how to find Adam."

"I told you, I can't—"

Drew grabs my hand and presses it to his chest. There's nothing there, nothing—

Oh.

His eyes shine when I look at him again. "A mating bond," he whispers. "I think it's strong enough for me to find him."

I swallow and nod. I expect to feel some sadness, some grief that yes, this really is over, and I never stood a chance, but it doesn't come.

It can wait. I'll still find him, still protect them both, no matter what.

"Okay," I say and get to my feet, holding out a hand to help Drew up. "Let's get back down there and start looking."

There are police on the street when we arrive, and Drew and I stay in the shadows as he listens to a woman they're talking to.

"Oh, no," he mutters.

"What is it?"

"She saw them teleport." He pulls a face. "Thank God I didn't shift."

"You were going to?"

Drew meets my gaze for the first time since he mentioned the bond earlier. "It was a close thing," he admits.

I get it. I might not have a mating bond with either of them, but my magic is restless, soothed by the knowledge that Drew is close and healing, and ready to lash out at the fact that Adam's gone.

I need to focus. I can sense Elliot's magic, the remnants of his ability to teleport, and the traces of the three others, like Drew said. Now that I know what happened to the other mage, I can sense the same taint of fae magic in their leftover signatures.

At least we're not going in entirely blind.

"I think it's this way," Drew murmurs, and when I look up at him, he's staring down the street, back the way we've come.

"You think…?"

"It's weak, still," he says. "If we'd—If Kieran were a wolf, he'd be able to track Lucien down instantly. No matter what. We're not… there yet. But that's where I feel like we need to go."

I swallow. I can trust Drew. Follow him.

"Lead the way," I say, and there's a flare of pride in his eyes before he starts walking.

We walk for over an hour, Drew leading me this way and that as he calibrates to a bond I can't feel. I frown, though, when the landscape becomes more familiar.

"You've got to be kidding," I mutter as we turn onto an industrial estate—onto the same industrial estate where I've been training. The warehouse I use is still heavily warded, a shining fucking beacon for the wrong kind of people, and there's a light upstairs in the building across from it, magic flickering within.

"Drew," I murmur and grab his arm, tugging him to a stop. "They're in there, right?"

"Yeah," he says. We're far enough that I'm sure they won't hear us, and I drag Drew over to my warehouse, through and inside the wards. They won't sense my magic now, either.

"What are we going to do?" Drew asks.

"We're going in there."

"We should tell—"

"We need to—"

I feel a sudden phantom pain, like I've been slapped across the face. Drew flinches when I feel it, and there's a dull pain in my chest, a magical pull and—

That's not possible, is it?

I take a breath, diving inwards. My magic is there, twisting and angry as it reacts to what I'm feeling. I breathe again, calming it a little, and dig deeper, looking for a spark, a flicker, anything .

There it is.

The bond is weak, weaker perhaps because of my magic, because there's not much room for it to grow.

Not without help.

I push my hands into the bond, pulling in magic and feeding it, strengthening it, sparking it to life. Drew gasps as it flares between us—and I see the tendril snaking towards Adam, too, feeding just as much magic so that he'll know we're here.

"Sam?" Drew's voice is thick. "You—"

"I know," I say. "Is it—"

He shakes his head, and for a moment I'm not sure if he's angry or upset or just overwhelmed, but then I feel the incredible rush of relief and happiness coming from him, and I rock back on my heels.

Pain flares on Adam's end of the bond. We need to go.

I turn, but Drew grabs my arm. "We need to let Kieran know we're here."

Fuck. He's right. I'm still wearing Drew's hoodie and dig my phone out of the pocket, dialling Kieran's number. He answers on the first ring.

"Hey. Everything okay?"

"No." I put him on speaker as I open a messenger app. "I'm sharing my location with you. We've found them."

"We? Found who?"

"The mages. They took Adam." I hear a growl in the background, and then what sounds like Elle's voice.

"We'll be right there," Kieran says. Lucien's barking his own orders down his phone. "Don't do anything until we arrive, okay?"

"I can't promise that." The words come out too sharp, and Drew frowns at me. He feels the same, though. We won't risk Adam.

"Fine," Kieran barks out. A door closes. "But keep yourself and Drew safe. We're getting Vasile, and I'll call Ophelia and Dante. We won't be long."

I want to tell him not to bring them, to keep them safe, but we need all the firepower we can get. "Yeah, okay. I will."

I hang up and shove my phone back into my pocket. Drew goes to move, but I shake my head. I need to get my magic under control, or Elliot will sense me coming.

It takes a minute or so—a minute I'm certain we don't have—before I feel confident we can leave the wards. Drew follows me towards the building and when he realises I can't quite see into the windows, high as they are, he slinks silently past, his entire body still as he glances inside.

"Nothing on the ground floor," he murmurs, lips pressed against my ear. "Upstairs?"

I nod. I can feel Elliot's magic, though I don't think he's using it. He had to teleport here, though, and it's far enough from where they all ambushed Adam that he can't have much power left in him.

"No wards," I whisper and head for the door. I push it gently, bracing myself for noise, but it opens silently, and I indicate for Drew to move past me again.

His night vision is better than mine, and I can't risk them finding us because I need light. Drew takes my hand and weaves us both through scattered boxes and furniture, detritus of years past.

We pause at the bottom of the stairs. Light flickers above us and I hear footsteps. Drew squeezes my hand five times.

Five of them. Three mages, Elliot, and… Adelaide, I suppose.

Fuck. Maybe we should wait. The element of surprise will help us, though. As long as I can get a shield between Adam and the others, I don't need to worry about killing them.

A groan echoes down the stairs at the same moment I feel a shudder of pain across my cheek again. Drew shakes. His eyes glow through the darkness, and claws prick at my skin.

I rip my hand away. Above us, someone is speaking, and I press my lips to Drew's ear.

"Shift."

He doesn't hesitate. He toes off his shoes, drags off his clothes, and within a few seconds, he's shifted, and there's a sleek, silent beast standing next to me. I don't have time to be in awe of him, no matter how much I want to sink my fingers into his fur or trace the lines of his new shape.

Magic rushes to me when I reach for it, and I jerk my head up. "Stay low."

I race up the stairs, uncaring that they can hear me. At the top, I hurl a sphere of power at one of the mages, knocking him aside before a shield jumps between me and Adam. He's cuffed to a chair, his fangs out, blood trickling from a new wound at his temple.

Drew stays in the darkness behind me, where no one can see him. Elliot smirks when I look at him, surveying me with a tilt of his head before he turns his attention to the mage I've knocked out.

"I told you he's a threat," he says. There's banked anger in his voice.

"He will not be for long," says a woman on the other side of the room.

No. A vampire. Adelaide.

She turns from where she's been looking out the window. Her eyes are flat, but her mouth twists in a scowl when she looks me over. "I assume Lucien is on the way?"

I don't say anything. Still, she smiles faintly, taking a couple of steps closer. Elliot stays where he is, back to the wall, but the other two mages flank her, apparently uncaring of the one already injured.

"Good," she murmurs, studying my face. "Here is just where I want him to be."