Magic on the Storm (7 page)

“At least you won’t be pregnant forever.” I gave her a crooked smile to take
the sting out of my words.
“True. True. And I was saying you do have a price. We all do. It’s human
nature. But you’re not easily bought.” She nodded. “You’re like your father in
that. Unbreakable morals.”
I swear she and I had not known the same man.
My father, in my head, exhaled a moan, and the need, the loneliness, swelled in
me.
“Take care, okay?” I said. “And let me know if you need anything. Anything I
can do for you.” It came out soft, concerned. I didn’t know how much of it was
me, and how much was my father.
Probably mostly me. When he tried to take control of my mouth, I got shoved
into the back of my head and had to fight to regain control.
“I’ll be fine.” She looked around like she was missing something. Kevin handed
her purse to her.
“Thank you,” she said. “I would have completely forgotten it. What would I do
without you?”
He smiled back. Polite. Friendly. But I watched how he held his breath, how his
shoulders tensed, how his fingers spread open as if trying to catch or hold
something fleeting.
Something inside me hurt. That something was my father.
And yes, it worried me. My father was not a nice man when he was in pain.
“You’re welcome, Mrs. Beckstrom,” Kevin murmured.
“Good night, Allie,” she said. “I’ll see you soon. And I’ll call if I hear
anything has changed with the . . . project.”
“Night, Kevin,” Zayvion said. Zayvion had been so quiet, I’d almost forgotten
he was sitting there. This, I decided, was what it would be like to date the
invisible man.
“Night,” he replied. “Coffee on me next time.”
“Let’s make it a beer,” Zay agreed. “Shoot some pool.”
“Pool sounds good. Give me a call, okay?”
I was pretty sure they weren’t really talking about coffee and pool. It wasn’t
just Zay and Shamus who had a secret code.
Before Violet could open the door to let herself out, Kevin was there, bending
over her, smooth, unhurried, holding the door for her.
They both stepped out into the night.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
Zay shrugged.
“Pool?” I asked. “You play pool?”
“Why do the most mundane things about me surprise you?” he asked.
“Because you never tell me any of this stuff.”
A corner of his mouth quirked up. “I play pool. Shoot hoops sometimes too. Any
other sport you’re curious about?”
“Hockey? Polo?”
“Simultaneously. Trick is to keep the horses on their skates.”
I rolled my eyes. “Forget I asked.”
“No, I’ll show you sometime.”
“Deal. Horses on ice skates, Jones. Now, what were you and Kevin really talking
about?”
“Business. Someone doesn’t like the idea of your father’s latest wife running
the company.”
“I know that. She told me that. I mean the other thing.”
“What other thing?”
“Beer and pool.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “It’s beer and pool. One’s a drink. The other’s a game.
That’s all. Ready to go?”
I let it slide since I didn’t want to cast a Mute spell when we could just talk
about it at my house in a couple minutes. The coffee shop had quieted some.
Enough I could hear the music, something that had a country beat, and a sitar.
I took a quick look at the people still in the shop.
And noted Anthony was gone.
“When did Anthony leave?”
“After you sat down with Violet.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“The warehouse. To see if Davy was there. He wants to apologize.”
“Are you serious?”
“Always.”
Great. If Davy was there—and I thought he’d mentioned he was going to check on
the place this evening—there’d be blood on the floor before I could dial 911. I
rubbed at my eyes, thinking maybe I shouldn’t have promised Pike anything.
Hounds were nothing but trouble.
“Listen,” I said, “if you want to head out, you can. I’ll go up there and mop
up the blood and call the cops on someone.”
“When are you going to stop that?”
“Stop what?” I asked.
“Telling me to go away.”
“I don’t do that.”
“You do.” He caught one of my hands. His fingers were warm. His touch radiated
a sense of peacefulness, of calm.
I, on the other hand, radiated nerves. Too many things were going wrong: Dad,
Greyson, Chase. And now Violet was in trouble over the disks. The whole
Anthony-Davy-Pike’s-death thing was one more hassle I didn’t need.
“I’m staying right here, with you,” Zayvion said. “Because I don’t want to be
anywhere else in the world.”
I inhaled his words, felt the assurance of that promise reverberate through me.
“Me too,” I said. And I meant it. Zayvion and I had an agreement that we were
going to give this relationship everything we could. And that included trust,
faith, and honesty.
Not a single one of which was among my strong points.
He gave me that sexy smile that usually got me in bed, then pulled away. It had
been a few seconds, us touching. But the absence of him, of the awareness of
him in my mind, rolled through me like a cold chill. I took a deep breath to
keep from reaching out for him.
Being Soul Complements made letting go difficult.
Understatement of the year.
Zay didn’t appear to have the same problem. He lifted his ratty jacket off the
back of the chair, then gathered his empty coffee cup.
But I’d been around him enough to know he was gliding through those motions.
Like a mantra, the ordinary actions guided his muscles and body, helping to
clear his mind. I knew there was a storm inside him. And that storm was sparked
by a need for me.
I liked that I could ignite that kind of heat in the man.
But right now I had to see if Davy had thrown Anthony out a window.
I finished my coffee and waved to Grant, who waved back. Zayvion and I left Get
Mugged and strode to the warehouse next door.

Chapter Five
Z
ay and I let ourselves into the warehouse through the side door. There
was an elevator inside, but I took the stairs behind the door.
Grant leased out the second and third floors to me. I wasn’t sure what I was
going to do with the third floor yet, but liked the view and the strange
architecture enough to keep it.
At the top of the second-floor stairway was a door. I pushed it open, out into
the wide hall that split the entire floor in two. Half the space nearest Get
Mugged was reserved for my office, a dojo, and a smaller kitchen/living area
that had enough locks and wards, I could keep the Hounds out if I needed to.
The other side of the building was set up as the main living quarters for the
Hounds. Bunks would eventually line one or two walls, and there were a couple
bathrooms, showers, and a larger kitchen. A few couches, a TV, computers, and a
space cordoned off for meetings.
It wasn’t a home, but it was a roof and walls, and a place out of the weather.
Right now, it was open loft space with bits of furniture here and there. Which
meant it was easy to hear who was here, and easy to find them.
I planned on keeping it that way.
Davy Silvers, arms crossed over his chest, leaned against one of the walls on
my side of the floor, between the windows that overlooked Get Mugged. Anthony
was halfway across the room from him, about dead middle of the space, his hands
out of his pockets, empty. No guns, spells, or blood yet.
“Hey, Davy,” I said. “Anthony. You boys figure things out?”
Davy spoke. “He said you okayed him being here. Hounding.” It came out low and
soft. Even though it had been several weeks since Davy had been mauled by
Greyson and betrayed by his girlfriend, Tomi, he still hadn’t fully recovered.
A few weeks ago, we’d found out Tomi left Oregon. Went back to California to
stay with her grandmother. Ever since Davy had heard that news, there was
something different about him. Something broken inside him.
And out of that breakage poured a cold anger I’d never seen in him before. I
figured it would just take time for him to get his footing again, to feel
normal without Tomi. And I figured he did not need Anthony rubbing salt in his
wounds in the interim.
I wandered over to my desk, letting my oh-so-casual body language wet-blanket
as much fire out of their standoff as I could. Davy was my secretary and
righthand man when it came to Hound business, and had been indispensable during
the renovations. He’d put a few files on my desk for me to look through. I
opened the first one, and pretended to read it.
“I told Anthony he has to get his act together before he can be a part of the
pack,” I said.
Davy shifted his fists to crack his knuckles against his ribs. “I don’t like
him,” he said. “I don’t want him here.”
“If we only opened our doors to Hounds who got along, there’d never be more
than one of us here at a time.” I closed the folder. Looked over at the boys.
Still hadn’t moved. Still looked like they were ready to attack.
“Did I mention the new rule? No killing each other. If you two can’t be in each
other’s presence, then I don’t want you in the same room.”
To my surprise, it was Anthony who listened. “I should go. I just wanted to
say—”
“Good-bye,” Davy said. End of conversation.
Anthony looked over at me. I nodded. Kid had guts. No smarts, but plenty of
guts.
“See you around, Anthony.”
He looked down at his shoe. He walked over to me, head still down. Davy tensed
with every step Anthony took.
Me too, but I hid it better.
“Here.” Anthony handed me a piece of paper. “Like you said, right?”
I glanced down at the note. It was a name and a number. His counselor, I
assumed. “So far,” I agreed. “Go on home.”
He hesitated. “I was trying to tell him, you know, the same things I told you.”
“Fuck,” Davy whispered.
“Go home, Anthony,” I said a little stronger. “While you can do it walking.
This isn’t going to get solved in one night.”
He hitched one shoulder and gave me the angry gaze. Didn’t like me much. Yeah,
well, I already had friends.
“Good night,” I said.
“Screw this.” He strode across the room and out the door without once looking
back. When it was clear he had taken the elevator down, I opened the file on my
desk for real.
“You staying here much longer?” I asked Davy.
He finally shifted away from the wall and walked over to me. I kept my eyes on
the paper but out of my peripheral vision paid attention to how he moved. He
wasn’t limping anymore, which was good, but still looked a little stiff, as if
something inside hurt every time he took too deep of a breath.
He sat in the chair on the other side of my desk, leather, comfortable—hey, I
had some money. “I was just headed out when Bell showed up. You could have
warned me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know he was coming up here. He was down at Get Mugged. Wanted
to apologize. Wanted to join.”
“And you’re gonna let him?”
“He screwed up, Davy. We all know that. I can’t forgive him for what he did to
Pike. But I won’t throw him under a train. If he can pull his life together,
I’m not going to get in his way.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I do. I understand what Pike would have done for him.”
Davy scowled, his eyes narrowing, his teeth showing.
“Pike saw something in Anthony,” I said. “He stuck with him even when the kid
was being an ass.”
“And it got him killed.” Davy stood. “I’m not that stupid. I didn’t think you
were either.”
“Lon Trager killed Pike,” I said. “Not Anthony. You know that.”
“I know Pike wouldn’t have gone down to Trager alone if Anthony hadn’t used his
blood to frame Pike.”
“Pike went there alone because he was a stubborn old man. I told him the police
would go with him, with us. He wouldn’t listen. Sometimes Hounds make stupid,
stupid choices, Davy. Just like Pike did, just like Anthony did, and just like
Tomi did. She almost killed you. And if she came walking in here, telling me
she was clean and had pulled her life together, I’d give her the chance to
prove it to me too.”
Davy’s face flushed red. The thin scar that still hadn’t healed over his left
eyebrow and down his temple turned white.
“Leave Tomi out of this.”
“Listen—” I stopped. Took the volume out of my voice. “What I’m saying is,
Hounds make bad decisions. It comes with the territory. I think you have to be
willing to do stupid things if you’re going to Hound. We’re hardwired that way.
Pike understood that. I think if he were still alive, he’d probably give
Anthony the ass-kicking of his life, and then take him in, and teach him so he
never made that kind of mistake again. It’s up to Anthony to pull his life
together. There’s a good chance he’ll find something better than Hounding,
safer than Hounding, before I let him in the pack.”
“You think that’s how Pike would want you to run this place?”
“I think that’s how I’m going to run it. When someone wants to take over, they
can run it their way. Until then, I make the rules. If you don’t want to follow
those rules, no one’s saying you have to stay.”
I leaned back. “I hope you won’t leave. Not over Anthony. He’s not worth it.”
Davy gritted his teeth again and looked out the window. Not much to see out
there, just the roofline of Get Mugged and a few lights shining through the
rain.
I waited. Gave him some space to think, some time to breathe.
Zayvion, who had been silent this whole time, stayed where he was, sitting in
one of the couches behind Davy, in my line of vision, watching Davy, me, and
the door, without looking like he was doing any of those things.
The rain pounded harder, wind kicking it across the window. It felt suddenly
much colder in here, as if night had crept unnoticed through the seams of the
walls and sunk down into all the shadows of the room.
“Things aren’t . . . aren’t what I want,” Davy said quietly.
“Hounding?”
“Everything.”
“You want some time off?”
He shook his head. “More time only messes with my head. I can’t even sleep,
well, not enough. Not really. Not since . . .” He stared out the window, and I
watched his eyes shift, as if he could see someone there.
“Sometimes I think I can feel her.”
I didn’t let my surprise show. “Who? Tomi?”
He nodded. “When she’s hurt. I think when she’s cutting. . . .”
“That seems a little strange, doesn’t it?” I asked gently.
He laughed, a short huff. “You think?” He looked back over at me, gave me the
half grin that I hadn’t seen in weeks. “Just a little strange?”
I had no idea what to say to that. Davy didn’t know about the Authority. He
just thought Zayvion was my boyfriend, who sometimes hired out as a bodyguard.
Since Davy didn’t know about the Authority, he also didn’t know about the kinds
of magic the Authority kept hidden. And other things, like the magically
half-man, half-beast Greyson, who had been using Tomi to try to trap me, and
dig my dad out of my brain. Zay was careful not to use much magic around Davy,
and I was trying my best to keep who knew what straight.
Blood magic had been used to hurt Davy. And Blood magic was . . . intimate. It
dug into your body and senses, deep and hard, and offered you pleasure—so long
as you did everything the caster wanted you to do. It tied you to the caster in
ways other magic disciplines did not.
There was a reason people mixed it with drugs and sex.
And there was a reason it was illegal.
Davy might know some of that, but I couldn’t tell him that Blood magic could be
mixed with dark magic to do very bad things. Things that were done to him.
Things that stained your soul.
I glanced over at Zayvion. He was frowning, staring at the back of Davy’s head.
I was pretty sure he couldn’t actually see inside Davy’s brain, but for a
minute I kind of wished he could.
“You gonna call the psych ward?” Davy asked.
“What? Why would I do that? You’re no crazier than the rest of us.”
Davy relaxed a little.
I couldn’t believe he’d really been worried I’d do that.
“Blood magic is pretty rough stuff,” I said. “And Tomi was using it. That . . .
man she was working for made her use it. I know she doesn’t remember that.” I
didn’t tell him I knew she couldn’t remember what she had done to Davy—what
Greyson had made her do to him—because someone in the Authority had taken away
her memory of it. “But I’m the one who found you in the park, and there was
definitely Blood magic involved. It can take a while for the effects of that to
fade.”
This is where living three different lives is tricky.
Spreadsheet. Still needed one. Because a woman with as many holes in her memory
as I have should not be allowed to try to juggle all these secrets.
“You think that’s it?” he asked.
“Yes. I mean, it’s possible you’re just the sensitive sort, lonely and all
that.”
He grinned. “Right.”
“It’s more possible magic messed you up a little. Tomi hit you pretty hard.
Magic hasn’t been in use long enough for us to know everything it can do to a
person. You might be sensitive to Tomi, to her pain for a while.
“If you want, I could find a doctor who might have some experience with this,”
I said. “There’s no end to what my father’s fortune can buy.”
“Maybe. I’m not ready to mess with it . . . yet.”
He meant he wasn’t ready to give up feeling Tomi yet. Poor kid had it so bad
for her that even if all he could feel was her pain, he was going to keep it.
I guess Anthony wasn’t the only one who needed counseling.
I wondered if anyone in the Authority would know why he was able to feel Tomi’s
pain. I made a note to ask. I knew there were doctors in the Authority who
specialized in magical wounds.
“Sleep might be a good idea,” I said.
He ran his hand back over his hair, leaving it stuck up on one side. “Yeah.
That’s not working so good right now.”
“How about sleeping pills?”
“I hate pills.”
Funny, for a Hound who used booze to cut the pain from magic, it was a little
high-handed for him not to want to take a drug that might actually be good for
him.
“Then try some warm milk. Eight hours. Sleep.”
“Warm milk? What are you, my mother?” He smiled again, looking for a moment
like the Davy I knew.
“I’ll know if you lie about it,” I said.
“Would I lie to you?”
“If you thought you could get away with it.”
I stood and so did he. “You staying?” I asked.
“No. I’ve had enough of this place for one night. I’m going home. I have sleep
to catch up on, apparently.”
Zay stood too, and we all walked out the door and were down on the street in
the rain in no time. We didn’t say anything else, even though a hundred things
were going through my head. All one hundred were things I couldn’t tell Davy.
“Night,” Davy said.
“See you,” I said.
Davy hunched his shoulders, and crossed the street to his car. Zay and I made
it to the parking lot, and managed to get under cover before we were soaked.
“Home?” Zay asked, after starting the car.
“How much time do we have before the meeting?”
“It’s only seven o’clock.”
I groaned. “Feels like midnight. Home. I want to eat my scone.” I held up the
wrinkled, slightly damp bag I still had in my hand. Maybe I’d get a chance at a
shower too, or maybe Zayvion would crawl into bed with me for a little bit.
The void stone necklace was still in the cup holder where I’d left it. I had
worried it was making me dizzy, sucking magic out of me too quickly. But right
now I was feeling a little edgy, the magic in me uncomfortably hot. The whole thing
with Anthony and Davy bothered me, but even worse was the problem with Violet
and the disks.
As soon as I thought about her, my dad scratched at the backs of my eyes. Like
I needed a constant reminder of things out of my control.
I could ask Zay to Ground me again. Could recast the Linger spell that had
apparently worn off. Or I could put on the necklace.
Right now, I wanted easy.
I put on the necklace, and sighed as it settled against my skin. Magic cooled,
slowed. Dad stopped scratching. I felt like I’d just taken a painkiller.
Nice.
I watched Zay drive, city lights and shadows sliding down his dark skin,
highlighting his strong features. The windshield wipers kept a steady beat. Zay
didn’t look happy.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Ask me after the meeting tonight.”
Right. There was another thing to worry about. “How does the Authority usually
handle storms like this?”