Shifter Magnetism (11 page)

Chapter Seven

Leila remained silent as Nic drove. His body was still tense, his jaw tight. She knew he wouldn’t appreciate the giggle that desperately wanted to escape her throat as she thought of his reaction to her mother’s threat. Her confidence that her obsession with her sexy shifter wasn’t one-sided was comforting.

The mating hadn’t been her choice. They weren’t together for love, but at least they had good chemistry. She could work with chemistry and try to keep it going. Maybe whatever they had could grow into something more. They’d gone at the thing bass-ackward, but she wouldn’t count her happiness out yet.

He’d hinted that not all mates stayed together as a pair and only came together to have children. The new primal part of her she recognized as her wolf violently vetoed the idea. It knew what it wanted. Leila was less sure but hopeful.

She also needed to work out what it meant for them both to be hybrids. To deflect her mother, his untutored power had to be particularly strong. It was imperative they explore what they could do now, before another emergency presented itself.

She would like to know what she was doing the next time she decided to get furry. The wolf had almost taken her over. The change had overtaken her with fear and exhilaration. The painful pleasure of her shift had confused her. There was no comparison to anything she’d ever felt before. She’d been herself, yet it was clear to her there was another primitive side of her. Her thoughts as the wolf seemed to rest outside of what she normally felt.

She’d needed to kill Radkin Lewis, and the only reason she’d surrendered her kill was because she’d responded instinctively to her slightly more dominant mate. If he’d been any less forceful with her, she’d have killed the sorcerer.

She still wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

She was as confused by her actions as she was about her new mate. The wolf within her was sure Nic was hers in a way that bordered on obsession.

Nic pulled into a parking space in front of her building and cut the engine. He moved to open the door, and she stopped him with a hand on his arm. When he turned to her, she admired the amber flecks in his brown eyes right before she kissed him. The moment their lips met, energy swirled in her veins and under her skin. She gasped against his lips, and he took advantage, tugging her closer, angling his head and taking the kiss deeper.

It was ridiculous what this one shifter made her feel.

She jerked back for air. Nic smiled at her and caressed her cheek before opening his door and getting out. She watched him through the window as he came around the SUV to open her door. His eyes were sharp as he scanned the parking lot. Her mother was wrong; he did keep her safe. She remembered the feel of Radkin Lewis’s neck under her palm. She was stronger now. She would keep Nic safe as well.

She let him hand her down from the SUV. He was still on guard as they entered the building. They passed an older woman, who gave them a startled look. Leila vaguely recalled she lived on the first floor. Leila didn’t really know the older woman, but Leila tugged on her torn dressed and smiled reassuringly just the same.
Nothing to see here.

They caught the elevator up to her floor. When the elevator doors opened, Nic sniffed the air and a deep rumbling growl escaped his throat. The elevator doors began to close, and he caught the edge of one door in a partially changed clawed hand. She wanted to ask what had him so upset, yet some instinct also warned her to be quiet and let him work.

She sniffed the air. There was something off. The smell was beyond the burned pot roast her neighbor had made the night before. The odor reminded her of the cloying scent of tar. She followed closely behind as Nic stalked toward her door. It stood ajar. The memory of having her essence drained from her came back full force. She gasped for breath.
No.

Suddenly, Nic’s arms were around her. “Shh. Stay here while I check it out.”

She tried breathing slowly to calm herself. Nic disappeared inside her apartment, and she wrestled her fear and won. She wouldn’t allow him to face danger alone. She was moving when he suddenly appeared in the doorway.

“He’s gone, but it’s bad. Prepare yourself.” He held out his hand, and she took it.

Leila held on to Nic tightly. “Was it him? The Brain Surgeon?”

“Yes, this is the same guy I’ve tracked at each crime scene.”

The living room was completely destroyed. Someone had run amok in her space, having a gigantic temper tantrum. There were burns in her couch and wall that could only have come from an angry witch or wizard tossing energy balls about. The place looked as if an earthquake had shaken her pictures from the walls, books from the bookcases, and vases from tabletops.

Leila stepped over the detached leg from her cocktail table. “Does the entire place look like this?”

“I’m afraid so. I’ll call the police while you look to see if anything is missing.”

The crazy bastard had done the same thing in each room. In the bathroom, her towels were actually shredded. She closed her eyes for a moment, and the rest of her senses took over. She could hear the hum of the light and discern what she was coming to recognize as the vandal’s personal scent. Something new inside her sat up and growled. When she found this guy, she would tear him limb from limb.

Nic stepped in front of her. “A patrol car will be here any minute. Does it look as if anything is missing?”

“Nothing but my sense of security.”

She didn’t resist when Nic pulled her close and rested his chin on her head. She had to believe they would find the man who’d attacked her. The sorcerer who was still attacking her by stalking her and tampering with her personal possessions. He was telling her without words that he could get to her.

The doorbell rang, and she and Nic walked out to let in the police. She waited, arms crossed over her chest and hands clutching her upper arms, for Nic and the guys to finish shaking hands. He knew the two responders and took a few minutes to talk with them about what was going on. Then the questions started. How many ways could she tell them that no, she didn’t know the guy personally, and she didn’t think anything was missing?

Finally, she turned to Nic and refused to say another word. Before she knew it, he’d smoothed over her silence and escorted the policemen out with their evidence. They wouldn’t find anything. The Brain Surgeon wouldn’t have had to touch anything to do his damage. The guy had magic, and he wasn’t afraid to use it.

Nic said, “Pack a bag with anything that isn’t destroyed. You can’t stay here. I’m going to see if I can find a trail to follow.”

Then he was gone. Leila went to the bedroom, reluctance in every step she took. Without Nic there to be strong for, her throat grew tight and her eyes watery. She was like her things, strewn about, sad, and displaced. She looked through her possessions, but she couldn’t make herself touch any of it to place in a bag. She would simply have to buy some new things until anything salvageable could be cleaned. She left her bedroom and went out to the living room to wait on Nic.

When he returned, she could feel the frustration roiling off him. “I lost the trail about a block away. He must have gotten into a car.”

“Are we ever going to find this guy?”

“We’ll get him. He has to slip up eventually. In the meantime, we stick together. I’ll watch your back, and you watch mine.”

Leila stared at the strong lines of his face. He hadn’t lied to her yet, and frankly she trusted him. They would find the killer, and he would pay for what he’d done to her and those other poor witches.

Leila took another look at the destruction around her. “If he’d left something of his, I could have done a finding spell. It doesn’t appear he did more than have a full-on hissy fit and expend a great deal of power damaging my things.”

“We keep following the clues. If we don’t find the right guy in this county, maybe we get a lead on him from the next county over. No matter what, we don’t stop until you’re safe. I promise you.”

She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. He cradled her close, and she pressed her nose to his collarbone and inhaled his scent. She needed to feel better and couldn’t with the sorcerer’s smell all around her.

“Can we go? I’ll buy some new things. I don’t think I could put any of this stuff on right now.”

“Let’s go.”

She tried not to lean too heavily on Nic as they headed back to the SUV. She was a powerful witch and had a strong beast growing inside her. She shouldn’t ever need to be scared. Yet she still remembered the cold feeling of her magic slowly being sieved from her body. She would never forget it. He’d been taking a part of who she was, leaving her with nothing that would have allowed her to live.

Leila and Nic stepped out in the sunlight, and Nic immediately moved in front of her. Surrounding his SUV were four men. She felt the tingle of magic and sniffed the air. She recognized the subtle undertone of what she could only describe as musk and wildness.
Shifters.

“Manuel wants to see you, Nic.” The guy was big with dark hair. His gaze centered on Nic and slid to her briefly before his nostrils flared.

It must have been a signal, or else a breeze had come up behind her because suddenly the shifters were all scenting the air. The men spared her fleeting glances, but their gazes always returned to Nic.

Nic leaned forward. “Tell Manuel I’m working a case and will come in as soon as I can, Jake.”

The broad-shouldered brunet shook his head. “It can’t work like that. He knows you’re avoiding him, and he’s pissed. We are to bring you in any way we can.”

She watched Nic’s shoulders swell. He was radiating menace so strong it rubbed like grains of sand against her skin. The other shifters changed stances as if preparing for anything. The air charged, and the wild new animal inside Leila woke up and stretched. Claws extended from her nail beds, and the sting of it sharpened her focus. If they wanted to take her mate, they would be going through her jaws and claws first.

And then Nic seemed to calm slightly. The intensity of a few moments ago eased, and Leila could think beyond tearing out throats. Jake and the other shifters watched Nic and Leila warily.

Jake said, “You’ve been hiding what you are. And now you have her. Though her energy is weird, you can feel the alpha female rolling off her. There is only one way to resolve this.”

Nic made a slashing motion across his body with his palm. “No, Jake. I could have left. Manuel has been pushing my hand for months, and I haven’t reacted. All I want is to protect my family.”

“He has your mother,” Jake said.

Leila was in motion before the last word left Jake’s mouth. She had every intention of maiming at least one of the shifters. Nic caught her around the waist, and she growled at him in warning. Then he caught her gaze. She resisted the stare as long as she could. Something in his gaze made it almost impossible for her not to drop her eyes. She fought it, snarling. Then her wolf grudgingly backed down…this time. Leila looked away and not down. She wanted him to know she’d let him win this round.

She turned to the other shifters. Their eyes were lowered, but they clearly watched her interaction with Nic in fascination.

“We’ll come in our car.” Nic’s tone suggested it was nonnegotiable.

Leila allowed Nic to settle her in the passenger seat of the SUV, all the while keeping her eyes on the other wolves. She waited for him to climb in before saying, “You shouldn’t have stopped me.”

She watched as he locked his gun in the lockbox under the driver’s seat, and she took the phone he handed her. Metal didn’t disintegrate like clothing during a complete shift. It appeared he expected to go full wolf.

Nic looked at her. “It isn’t their fault. They must obey the alpha. It is very rare for a wolf to be strong enough to resist his or her alpha. It’s why Manuel wants to bring me to heel so badly. The others have probably begun to question who’s stronger.”

Nic started the car and drove out of the parking lot.

“What do I need to know?”

He took his eyes off the road briefly to glance at her. “At this point just be on guard. If he’s taken my mother, he’s desperate. There isn’t any way to avoid this confrontation now. Manuel hates nonshifters. You being a witch is going to send him into a fit. He will also be frothing at the mouth because my mate is an alpha female. This entire encounter has disaster written all over it.”

“You didn’t want this confrontation, did you?”

“No, I’ve been planning on leaving the pack as soon as I knew we’d mated. Sooner than that, if I tell the truth. It has gotten harder and harder to pretend to be more submissive. My wolf has been rebelling. I wouldn’t have lasted much longer.”

They were quiet on the rest of the drive. She’d known where the shifter lands were located, near the Coldwell city limits situated on the edge of the state forest extending over to Grantsville. It seemed like a good spot for a pack of wolves. They could run as they pleased after dark when the park closed. Nic drove through dense patches of hickory and oak trees until the area suddenly widened to a clearing surrounded by homes.

At the top of the clearing, near the biggest house, a crowd had formed. In the center, a man stood apart, arms crossed over his broad chest. He was big, like the biker in the gang all the others were afraid of. Close-cropped dark hair and a dark tan were what she could mostly make of him.

“I guess the guy in the center is Manuel.”

“Yeah, the lady behind him is his mate, Mary.”

They parked in a sparsely grassy area at the edge of the clearing and walked closer to the gathering. Leila concentrated on Manuel. He had the close-set eyes and perpetual scowl of bullies everywhere. He held his mouth tight, with a slight smirk to the edge. She had a feeling he had an agenda bigger than simply making Nic follow his orders. She glanced back at the alpha’s mate, Mary. Mary’s expression was blank. She stared at them, but Leila had no idea what she might be thinking. Strawberry blonde, she was pretty in a girl-next-door way. Leila could imagine her carpooling kids to soccer.