Chapter 14

Lachlan

What the bloody hell had just happened?

I'd lost my goddamned mind in there. I hadn't been that close to a woman in years, and something about Eve had driven every ounce of sense from my head. I hadn't felt desire like that…ever. It was almost like touching her had ignited something. And her scent…

When I'd pressed my face to her neck, she'd smelled like heaven. And yet, she hadn't smelled like my mate. My wolf would have recognized her, and it hadn't. But how could she smell so good and not be my mate? Everything in me was starting to shout that she was.

But she couldn't be. She definitely wasn't the same girl I'd met years ago. She wasn't even a shifter—she was a fae, for fates' sake.

It didn't matter that I wanted her more than I wanted my next breath, it was too dangerous.

I dragged a hand through my hair, trying to shove the thoughts from my mind. I was a mess from finding my father's crypt destroyed. His bones…

The sight still haunted me.

I was losing it, and my obsession with Eve was a manifestation of that. I'd think on it more when this was over. Until then, my focus needed to be entirely on finding the killer.

Finally, we reached Mariketta's box.

I knocked briefly, then slipped inside, Eve following behind me. The box was empty except for Mariketta, who wore a severe black gown and sparkling jewels. Everything about Mariketta screamed power, and I respected it.

Behind her, the circus flashed in a series of magnificent colors as acrobats leapt through the air.

She looked at me, a sly smile on her face. "You made it. Didn't run into Torin, did you?"

"You knew we might."

She shrugged, smiling. "Perhaps."

Meddling sorceress, always looking to cause trouble. No wonder she'd insisted we come here. She looked around my back, spotting Eve. "Well, now, who are you?"

"Eve. Shadow Guild."

Mariketta's eyebrows shot up. "The potion maker."

"The same." Eve took a seat next to Mariketta. I took the one behind, and the two women turned to face me, forming a small circle. "We're hoping you can help us turn back time in a cemetery."

Surprise flashed on Mariketta's face. "That's a difficult spell. A rare one. You're sure you need it?"

"We do," I said. "Can you do it?"

"Of course I can. The question is…will I?"

"What is your price?"

She pursed her lips, then smiled. "Money. A lot of it."

Thank fates. Something was going our way today. "How much?"

"Twenty thousand pounds." She watched me, and I probably should have flinched, because she added, "Thirty, actually."

Eve had turned pale, but I just nodded. "Thirty. And we do it as soon as possible."

"At dawn tomorrow, then. We'll need the energy of the rising sun."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Your cemetery, I presume?"

"Aye. In the back, near the mausoleums."

She nodded, then looked more carefully at Eve and me. "There's something between you two."

Panic flashed in Eve's eyes. That was strange. I'd expect denial or annoyance, but panic?

"Thank you." I stood, deciding to ignore Mariketta's prodding.

Eve nodded gratefully to Mariketta, then raced from the box. I nodded goodbye and followed her out. We left the theater in silence, fortunate to avoid everyone as we exited.

"I'd like to sleep at my place tonight," Eve said.

"You'll sleep at the tower."

"I'm wearing this damned dog collar, Lachlan." Anger vibrated in her voice. "You can find me, no matter what, so the least you can do is let me sleep in my own bed."

"You'll sleep in the tower, and that's the last of it." I didn't want her far from me. It was ridiculous and dangerous, but I wanted her close by.

She huffed, then picked up the pace. We walked the entire way in silence, reaching the courtyard in front of my Guild tower without incident.

We were about to cross the street toward the courtyard when a noise sounded from a rooftop. I stiffened and looked up. A shadowy figured moved, just barely visible in the shadows.

A half second later, I heard the faintest pull of a metal trigger. The short bolt caught the moonlight as it hurtled toward us. Crossbow.

I recognized it immediately. It had once been a favored weapon of mine.

I grabbed Eve and dove right, wrapping myself around her. The bolt thudded into the wall behind us.

"What happened?" Eve tried to scramble up.

"Take cover behind that bench."

It was close enough she could get behind it, and she did, moving fast. She crouched behind it and drew her bag from the ether. Quickly, she passed me a potion bomb and took one for herself.

From the roof, I could barely hear the sound of the attacker loading another bolt into his crossbow.

I pressed my comms charm. "Backup! Across the square!"

I stood and hurled the potion bomb at the roof. The attacker fired off the crossbow at the same time. I dove left but moved too slowly, and the bolt sliced through the outside edge of my arm just as the potion bomb slammed into the tiled roof. It exploded with a bang, sending a wave of force out.

Eve threw an identical second bomb, and another boom reverberated through the night.

"They might have knocked him out," she said, passing me a bomb.

I squinted up into the dark, catching sight of a brilliant cloud of silver powder poofing upward. "Damn it. Transport charm."

Panting, Eve slumped against the bench.

I knelt, inspecting her face. "Are you alright?"

"Me?" Her gaze went to my arm. "What about you."

"It's nothing. I got lucky."

"Why the hell is he after me?"

"I don't know. But we'll find out."

She nodded. "Let me go check the roof."

"It's too dangerous."

She scowled and shoved me, then stood and called upon her wings. She was airborne before I could stop her. Six of my security force arrived while she was on the roof, and we waited for her to finish. A few minutes later, she returned, shaking her head. "There's nothing up there."

"We'll know more in the morning. Come on."

We headed back to the tower, my guards leaving us when we stepped inside. I escorted her all the way up to her temporary bedroom. At the door, she turned back. "I'll meet you before dawn." I nodded, and she shut the door.

I stared at it for a long moment. Twice, now, she'd been attacked. Each time, I'd felt fear like I hadn't felt in years.

What was I going to do when we caught this killer? Let her go?

Aye.

I had to. This obsession was mad.

I scrubbed a hand through my hair and turned to leave, reaching for the flask in my back pocket. As I raised it to my lips, I realized that drinking was ridiculous. The potion wasn't working, and I needed something stronger.

I checked my watch. Midnight.

It would be daytime in Magic's Bend, Oregon, one of the largest all-supernatural cities in America. The blood sorceress who provided me with my potion didn't live in Guild City. That had been a conscious choice on my part. I liked the fact that she was halfway around the world. I didn't need my pack knowing that I relied on a potion to keep my emotions at bay.

Quickly, I strode to my quarters and let myself into the cold room. It was austere, which suited me, and I took the last of the two transport charms from the dresser in my bedroom. I'd need to replace them soon, but there was no other way to reach Oregon and get back before dawn.

I hurled one to the ground and envisioned the quiet street. A silver cloud burst upward, and I stepped inside, letting the ether suck me in and spin me through space. It spat me out on a street corner in Darklane, the dark magic district of Magic's Bend. The supernaturals who lived and worked there weren't necessarily evil, but the magic they used walked the line between good and bad.

Victorian-era houses rose tall on either side of the street, their wooden fronts and ornate trim covered in the grime of dark magic. The entire place was dark gray from it, and even the sun seemed to shine less brightly on this street.

I spotted the sign that swung over a once-purple building a few houses down: The Apothecary's Jungle. Quickly, I strode toward it, taking the steps two at a time. I knocked hard, waiting impatiently. A few minutes later, the door creaked open. A woman in a black silk bathrobe with a sweep of black eye makeup stared out at me, her hair piled onto her head in a bouffant so big that it should have its own post code. I'd once thought she was beautiful, but now the only person I could see in my head was Eve.

"Mordaca. Just who I'm looking for."

"Lachlan." She scowled, her blood-red lips twisting in annoyance. "It's godawful early, you know that?"

"It's four p.m."

"Like I said." She turned and gestured for me to follow, flashing black nails that had been filed into points. "But come in. It must be important."

She led me through a dark hallway to a workshop dominated by an enormous table in the middle and a hearth on one side. She glided around the table to lean against the shelves decorating the opposite wall, crossing her arms over her chest to stare at me.

"The potion you've given me is no longer working," I said. "Does it expire?"

She laughed. "It's not milk. It doesn't expire." She frowned. "But it shouldn't stop working, either."

"Can you make a stronger one?"

"First, I want to understand why it's stopped working. What changed? What did you do?"

"Nothing." I hesitated. "A woman showed up."

Her eyebrows rose. "Oh."

"She means nothing to me."

"My potion begs to differ." She tapped her fingernails against her chin, clearly thinking. "That potion is meant to suppress all emotions. But whatever you feel for her…well, it's strong. Does it feel strong?"

"It feels strange." I didn't even know what strong emotion felt like anymore. "Perhaps I just want her."

She shrugged. "It's possible. Desire isn't quite the same as other emotions. It's physical as well as mental. So it could be breaking through the potion. If you've been celibate all this time…"

She eyed me up and down, and I just nodded.

"Well, maybe that's it. You should just sleep with her and get it out of your system. Then maybe you'll go back to normal."

The idea made my blood race. I wanted that, but I couldn't have it. "That's not going to happen."

"She married?"

"It's just not going to happen. Can you give me something stronger?"

She sighed. "Yeah. I can try to give you something with more kick. No promises, though."

No promises.

Bloody hell.

* * *

Eve

Before dawn, I woke in my room in the Shifters' Guild tower. For a half second, I stared at the ceiling, letting last night play through my mind.

Something had changed at the theater.

I'd felt his gaze on me the entire walk back, but we hadn't spoken a word.

Memories of our near kiss flashed through my mind. One more of those, and he'd be on to me. It wasn't logical, but I could feel it in my gut. I was running out of time before he figured out that I was not as I seemed.

Lachlan was too clever. And even though it was supposed to be impossible to change species, it clearly wasn't. He was going to figure it out.

I didn't want to be here when he did.

I shivered and dressed quickly. Dawn was coming, and I didn't want to miss the meeting with the sorceress. While I'd slept, someone had delivered a fresh set of underwear and socks.

I stared at them piled in the chair, horror flashing through me.

They were mine.

Lachlan hadn't sent a shifter into my guild tower, had he? That would be totally unforgivable.

Don't get your knickers in a twist, it wasn't him.

I turned, searching for the voice. Ralph sat on the windowsill, grinning at me. The little raccoon held a Cadbury bar in his small hand.

"Did you bring me those?"

He nodded. Think of me as your butler. You know how to pay me.

I looked between him and the underthings, imaging him running through the street, clutching my pants. Worse, they were my oldest pair, reserved only for laundry day. "I'm going to need half your chocolate bar."

He grumbled, but I heard him plop down off the windowsill and click-clack his way to me. He handed up half the candy bar, and I shoved it in my mouth.

I was going to need a lot more than that. "Thanks, mate."

I hadn't got the clean clothes in the most ideal way, but I was glad to have them.

See you. He shoved the last of the chocolate into his mouth and scampered up the windowsill, his fat bum taking a few extra heaves to get going. He disappeared into the night, and I dressed, then headed downstairs. Fortunately, I didn't run into anyone as I walked.

Lachlan waited for me in the main hall, standing near the exit. He looked every inch the powerful Alpha that he was, but there were shadows under his eyes that made me wonder where he'd spent the night.

I squared my shoulders and approached, making eye contact. I made sure to hold it the whole way there, no matter how uncomfortable. At some point, I should have been forced to look away. He was the Alpha, and just like the Alpha's Command, there was magic in his gaze. No subordinate wolf should be able to hold his gaze for too long.

But the longer I held it, the easier it became.

That was weird, but maybe it was the necklace's doing. A fae shouldn't have any trouble holding his gaze.

"Good morning." He held out a paper-wrapped sandwich, and I could smell the eggs and bread. My stomach grumbled.

"Thank you." I took it, appreciating the gesture. He was always feeding me, though he looked kind of annoyed by it. Almost like he felt compelled to care, but he didn't want to.

"Dawn is coming." He turned toward the door. "Let's go."

I followed him out of the tower and across the quiet courtyard. Guild City was just beginning to wake up, and I could see movement behind the window of the coffee shop across the way. As much as I'd kill for a coffee, now wasn't the time.

The cemetery was silent as we entered, our footsteps disturbing the mist that hung low over the ground. The headstones watched us silently as we made our way toward the back. This morning, it was creepy. Nothing like last night.

As we walked, I kept a lookout for my mother's headstone. I hadn't visited it since her burial, though I'd often wanted to. But if I were caught here, how would I explain it?

The sorceress waited for us by the crypt. Today, she wore a simple black cloak and had her hair pulled up in a complicated knot atop her head. Severe black eyeliner and pale lipstick completed her look, and it was definitely cool.

She solemnly gazed at the two of us. "You're sure you want to do this?"

Lachlan nodded. "We need to know what happened here."

"All right. I'll turn back time as far as I can. It will be easier if it happened recently."

"I believe it did."

She nodded and reached into the large leather bag that hung over her arm. As the morning light turned pale gray, she removed large colored stones and placed them in a semicircle around the entrance of the crypt. I watched, intrigued, as she anointed each stone with oil from a tiny silver vial.

She looked at Lachlan. "If you'll remove the door now, we can get started."

He strode toward the crypt and lifted the stone without trouble, setting it aside so that it leaned against the wall.

"Thank you." She took her place directly across from the entry to the mausoleum and gestured for us to stand behind her. We did as she asked, taking up a position that allowed us to see through the doorway into the crypt.

She removed her black gloves and dabbed some of the oil onto the backs of her hands, then tucked the silver vial away in her bag. As the first rays of sunlight began to turn the clouds pink, she raised her hands and began to chant. The language was unfamiliar—it didn't even sound modern, in fact.

Magic sparked on the air, coming from all around us.

I shivered. The graves—that had to be it.

Blue light began to glow from the ground, rising to the surface to gleam in the mist. The sorceress chanted louder, and the light rose up in arcs, traveling from the graves to the stones that she'd laid out. The brilliant blue light was almost blinding as it sliced through the air, forming a lattice dome around the entrance to the crypt.

When the sun shone directly onto the dome, the air popped, magic sparking so hard against my skin that I winced and stepped back. The glowing lattice faded, and a faint wind picked up. It blew straight across the walkway, and my head spun. It felt almost as if it were pushing time along.

The sorceress watched with bright eyes, continuing to chant.

When the shadowy, nearly transparent figure appeared, I jumped. "He's dressed the same as the guy who attacked me," I said. "Same size, too." Unfortunately, he was still wearing the hoodie that obscured his face.

Lachlan stepped around to the side, trying to get a better view, but judging by the frustration on his face, it didn't work. The man kept his head lowered and the hood carefully concealing his features. Lachlan stepped closer, as if he were going to cross the blue light barrier, but the sorceress gestured him back, murmuring, "Too dangerous."

His mouth tightened, but he nodded and stayed put.

The shadowy man strode toward the crypt and removed the stone door as easily as Lachlan had. Then he entered and stared at the coffin for one long moment. My heart lodged itself firmly in my throat as I watched him shove the lid off the sarcophagus. The stone slab fell to the floor and shattered.

The next moments were chaos. He lost his shit, smashing the sarcophagus to pieces, picking up slabs of stone and swinging them against the wall. The rage in his movements made me slightly nauseous. When he started to tear the skeleton apart, I felt my stomach really turn, and I flinched when the attacker threw the wolf skull right against the wall.

I glanced at Lachlan, hating the way his dark eyes were shadowed with pain. For someone who had avoided emotion for so long, he was really getting hit hard with it lately.

The spectacle continued for ten minutes, until I was desperate to ask the sorceress to end it. Instead, I bit my lip. We had to learn from this, and so I forced myself to watch, to search for any clue we might find.

Finally, the man exited the mausoleum. I caught sight of the wolf's claw clutched in his hand.

That bastard. It was a memento.

As he approached, I ducked low, trying to catch sight of his features. Unfortunately, he was extremely good at keeping his face tilted down. I could see nothing but the sweep of a pale nose and brilliant, dark eyes.

Entirely black.

Just like the apothecary had said. Just like I'd seen in the alley.

The Dark Moon curse.

No question. Especially with the way he'd destroyed the sarcophagus. The sheer madness of the act had been visible in every movement.

As he neared me, I searched his body frantically, looking for any kind of clue. Why couldn't he be wearing a free shirt from his accommodation, stating the name of the block of flats?

Of course he wasn't.

But his trousers…

The cuff of one of the legs of his jeans was rolled up slightly, the hem flipped as if it had caught on something. And there, tucked inside the denim, was a flower. It looked like it had got lodged there when he'd been striding through a garden bed. And damned if it wasn't distinct. Tall and slender, with brilliant red droplet-shaped petals—I'd never seen anything like it.

I knelt down and yanked my mobile from my pocket, determined to snap a picture.

"That won't work," the sorceress said. "Best memorize it."

I did as she commanded, using the next few precious seconds to commit the bloom to memory. I tried to store away every little detail. It was a flimsy clue, but I had to take it since no more were coming my way.

A moment later, the man stepped out of the magic circle and disappeared.

I heaved a sigh and looked down, praying that the flower would be enough.

Lachlan strode over to rejoin us. He thanked the sorceress and arranged payment. When she'd departed, I looked at him. "I'm going to try to find out what kind of flower was in the cuff of his trousers. Maybe it can lead us to a place he's been."

Lachlan nodded. "It's a long shot."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have a meeting with the Alphas of some of the other packs." He looked back at the mausoleum. "That was targeted. Whoever is killing people in our clan is extremely angry with my father."

"Did he have a lot of enemies?"

"A few. He was a hard man, intractable. And he spent a good bit of time before becoming Alpha on the security force at Glencarrough. I didn't think much of it before now, but he's clearly a linchpin in all of this."

No question.

I was just grateful that he wasn't commanding me to accompany him to Glencarrough. It was the headquarters of all shifters, located in Scotland. The security force there was a bit like a police force that made sure shifters followed the law. When someone did wrong against another pack, it was Glencarrough that stepped in. Only the strongest were on that security force, and Lachlan's father had been more than strong.

"He made enemies there, I imagine," I said.

"A few, probably." He nodded. "I'm going to find out who, and if any of them are out of prison now."

It wasn't a bad theory. In fact, it was the best one we had so far. "Good luck. I'll let you know if I get anywhere with the flower."

He nodded, but his gaze looked doubtful. I was a little doubtful, too. But I'd never seen a flower like that. Surely it couldn't grow in too many places in London.