Warrior Enchanted: The Sons of the Zodiac (28 page)

“I’m going to drink this and will need about five minutes for it to take effect.”

“And the drink?” He nodded toward the mug.

“It’ll help the visions come easier and make them more expansive. I’m not trying to spy on Magnus at this very moment, but I want to reach out and find the high points.”

“And you call my gifts unique.”

Emerson smiled at that. “They are.”

“Last time I checked, I couldn’t conjure up memories out of mirrors, so you’ve got one up on me there.”

She took a large sip and simply smiled at him over the rim of the mug. So much had happened over the last several days. So many moments that drew them closer, even as he lived in growing fear of something happening to her.

After a few minutes, she nodded. “I’m ready to begin.”

He stood with her as she leaned over the mirror and reached for her hand, hoping for quick answers to their questions. And as their fingers linked, Drake vowed to help her deal with whatever she discovered.

Emerson was conscious of Drake’s anxiety as she allowed her mind to reach out through the mirror. The tisane she’d brewed had gone a long way toward calming her nerves, but nothing could stop the adrenaline that pumped in her veins at the opportunity to finally get some answers.

Reaching out, she probed the air through the mirror, searching for the whispers that would show her to her brother. She’d always found it easier to focus on family members, and as she caught on Magnus’s essence, she wondered why she hadn’t thought of this sooner.

Images flashed before her, some familiar as she saw
him in their kitchen, then in their backyard as he waited for her to come home.

She couldn’t get a bead on his thoughts, but she got a sense for his feelings.

Impatience. Indecision. Fear?

Taking a calming breath, she refocused herself, trying to go more deeply into the secrets the mirror offered. Now that she had a bead on Magnus’s essence, she probed with a combination of her magic and her mind, allowing her senses to reach out.

And stumbled into a memory that had the flight instinct rearing up within every part of her being, both physical and spiritual. Tamping down on the urge, Emerson forced herself to look.

Magnus faced a woman—long, lean and leather-clad—who wove tales of power and what she could turn him into. She watched as his eyes filled with greed at the promised offerings—strength, power, domination.

She saw Magnus extend his hand to the woman, clasping her smaller, outstretched one as he took what she offered. Saw as the clothes were ripped from his body and his slender form expanded and grew into the hard-planed Warrior she’d seen most recently.

And finally, Emerson saw the tattoo that rose in dark ink over his shoulders, the snake that coiled and wrapped itself around him.

Although she couldn’t hear the words he and the woman spoke, the memory emblazoned itself on her, its contents as clear as if they’d happened to her.

When she finally pulled herself from the vision, Emerson was forced to acknowledge the truth.

Her brother was lost.

The car ride back to the city was a quiet one, both of them full of the emotional overload of the last few days. Drake risked a sideways stare at Emerson as they drove down the West Side Highway. Dark circles colored the thin skin beneath her eyes and her small frame grew increasingly tense the closer they got to Manhattan.

“Do you know what I’ve been thinking about?”

Her quiet words pulled him from his thoughts as they turned down their street. “Your sister?”

“No. Finley. What must she think of all this?”

Drake considered Grey’s lawyer and what the last several days must have been like for her. From her capture in the warehouse to all that she’d been exposed to since, it had to have taken its toll. “Grey hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with her.”

“She’s in this whether he likes it or not. He’s trying to protect her, but he does her no good keeping her ignorant.”

“No,” Drake agreed on a small sigh. “He doesn’t.”

She cocked her head, the inquisitive motion a combination of sexy and sweet. “You’re not nearly as bullheaded as the others.”

“That’s not what you usually say.”

“Okay, when it comes to us you’re incredibly stubborn. But put that aside for a moment. How do you manage it?”

“Manage what?”

“You lead quietly. It never ceases to amaze me. Even when you’re marching in like the alpha dog on parade, you do it in a way that’s not insulting to anyone else. Least of all me.”

“I never stopped to think about it.”

“No, you probably don’t. You just do it.” She hesitated for a moment, and Drake got the distinct impression she was weighing her words. “You’re a good man, Drake. You may even be the best man I’ve ever met. That’s why once this is over, we need to stop seeing each other.”

The words smacked with the force of an oncoming semi, but somehow he kept his hands steady as he bypassed their homes, heading one more block east to the parking garage where he stored his car.

“Interesting decision. Care to tell me what’s prompted it? Especially after last night?”

“Last night made it all clear. You deserve better. Better than me and what I can give you. What I’m willing to give you.”

“Why are you so convinced you know—to use your term—‘better’?”

“You do it often enough to me.”

“Yes, but I’m right.”

“There you go again. This weird power play that makes you think there can be more between us. Well, there can’t. I finally understand that now.”

“Give me three reasons.”

“My fucked-up brother, your insistence that I’m some sort of dream woman and immortality.” She rattled them off with a speed that suggested she’d spent more than a few moments thinking about them. “In no particular order.”

“You’re
my
dream woman and I’m not changing my mind about that.” Drake pulled into the parking garage and saw an attendant waiting for them. He jumped out
to gather their bags from the trunk, his mind whirling with Emerson.

How to convince her? How to break through that freakishly stubborn skull of hers and make her see what he knew in his heart to be true?

She felt the same things he did. He hadn’t ever really doubted it, but last night had proved it.

They
fit
, gods damn it. Perfectly.

Distracted, he didn’t even realize the mistake as he made it. A few moments…just a simple twist of fate.

As he handed the attendant a tip, the bag on his arm slipped, jarring his hand. Their fingers brushed slightly, and that’s when Drake felt the rush of static electricity up his arm.

“Emerson, get down!”

Whirling, Drake slammed the bags at the Destroyer, using the momentum to force the man against the car while he got his hands free.

Sparks shot off the side of the car as the Destroyer’s body made contact with the metal and Drake wasted no time. Leaping on the guy, he immediately went for the throat, seeking the quickest way to end him. He didn’t care who had sent him and he wasn’t looking for answers.

He wanted the threat removed.

The Destroyer generated a fireball, and Drake felt the liquid fire of it as it brushed his arm before veering off wildly and petering out. As another wave of electricity flashed, going even wider than the first, Drake saw Emerson from the corner of his eye. “Get away from this,” he ordered through gritted teeth.

“Remember yesterday?”

Before he could answer, her small hand gripped the waistband of his jeans and her fingers made contact with his body. A wave of fire shot from her fingertips, coating the Destroyer’s face in a steady blaze.

He barely felt the fire as it burned above where his hands struggled to grip the flailing body. The fire gave him the momentum he needed, throwing in an added distraction to the Destroyer as Drake worked to get the handhold on the neck he needed.

“A little higher or you’ll hit the car,” he grunted as the Destroyer threw all his weight against the frame of the Roadster, trying to dislodge his grip.

“Seriously?” Emerson shouted in his ear. “That’s your worry right now?” But she did as he asked, lifting the stream a few notches higher.

It gave them the last bit of power they needed, and as Drake’s grip tightened firmly on the Destroyer’s neck, he gave a swift, hard twist.

The results were immediate. He dropped his hands, reaching for Emerson’s forearm to still her. “Enough. He’s gone.”

“Oh my God, Drake.” Emerson released her hold on his jeans to wrap her arms around him. “He knew we’d be here.”

“Yeah, he did.”

Drake knew it was useless to tell her to get in the car and drive. While it had sustained some damage to the frame, she could have used the Roadster to get out of there. But he knew it was a futile request.

“Which means we need to figure out what happened to the real attendant.” He snatched his phone and made a quick call to Quinn, giving him the details of where
they were. He’d have the added benefit of getting the bull to wipe the security system once he was here as well.

Drake’s gaze alighted on a
CLOSED. LOT’S FULL
sign and grabbed it, dragging it to the entrance. It had been quiet since they arrived. It was late enough in the morning that there would be few people looking for their cars, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

Keeping Emerson firmly behind him, he held her hand as they walked toward the small office in the back of the garage. The door locked from the outside, but Drake got a firm visual of the small, cubicle-sized space through a gated hole on the door. “Stand here and don’t move.”

With a quick port, he was inside the room and then opened the door outward. Emerson’s eyes widened as she saw the evidence of what lay behind him. Pushing past him, she kneeled down beside two bodies, one still in uniform and the other stripped to a T-shirt and underwear.

“They’ve each got a pulse, but they’re both out cold.” She lifted her hands from the stripped guy’s neck, running her fingers toward his heart, and stopped when she got to the midpoint on his chest. “Look there. I thought it was dirt at first, but these are burn marks.” With a quick shift on her heels to focus on the other guy, she found matched markings on his shirt.

Drake recognized the marks immediately. “They both took a serious level of voltage to knock them out like this.”

“Will they be okay?”

“If they’re still breathing, that’s a good sign.” Although
he didn’t want to leave her, she could pull the door closed behind her and be safely locked inside the small office. “I want you to stay here and call Callie. She’ll know what to do.”

“They need doctors.”

“We can’t put anyone else in danger until we figure out if anything else is in the garage. Callie will know what to do in the meantime.”

“Yes, I will.” Callie materialized behind them, along with Quinn. Emerson stood to give her room as she knelt between the two men.

“Keep them sedated and out if you can without it hurting them. We need a few more minutes,” Drake instructed before turning to Quinn and updating him on what had happened since they pulled into the garage.

“Let’s go.”

“I’m going, too.”

“You’re staying here with Callie.”

The mulish frown was immediate and Drake reached for her arms. “Emerson, I need you to wait for me.”

“You’ve seen how we fight, Drake. It makes us stronger.”

“And we can’t go spreading fire inside a garage full of cars and leaked gas and oil on the floor.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Please wait with Callie.”

He saw the moment his words registered, her gaze alighting on a small row of auto equipment against the wall. “I see your point.”

“This won’t take long.”

A heavy thud echoed behind them, followed by a scratchy, raspy noise he couldn’t place. As Drake
turned, he was greeted by Magnus and the very large snake that coiled around his feet. The rub of its scales on the concrete floor of the garage produced the sandpaper sound.

“No. It won’t take long at all.”

Pain stabbed her in harsh, terrifying bursts at the sight of her brother and what he’d become.

A monster.

He had the same gifts as Drake and his Warrior brothers—but not. The talent may be the same but the manifestation in Magnus was just twisted and wrong.

“Em, get out of here.” Magnus tilted his head toward the exit of the garage. “Go home and wait for me there.”

“I can’t. You can’t do this, Magnus. Stop. Please stop. We can get you help.”

“I don’t need help.”

What could she say? How could she make him see reason? “Of course you do. This isn’t you, Magnus. It’s not who you’re meant to be.”

“Get out of here, Em!”

The fears she’d harbored about her sister reared up and slammed her like a storm on the sea. She’d questioned Veronica’s ability to act in a crisis, but could she do what had to be done? Could she look at Magnus as something other than her brother and acknowledge what he’d become? What she’d
seen
him become with her own eyes.

“There’s a way out of this, Magnus. There has to be.”

“My life, my choices. They don’t concern you. I just need you to get out of the way.”