Inquisitor (Witch & Wolf Book 1) (40 page)

All of my rage and grief boiled over, burning through me. My eyes hurt the most. The ache of the tears I thought I’d forgotten how to shed blurred my vision. “What had she done to deserve death?”

“She existed.” Mark refused to meet my gaze again, his voice quiet and broken. His guilty tone made me pause for a moment, while my rage and sympathy for him warred against each other.

I trembled, dispelling my hesitation with a shake of my head. “May you live a thousand years,” I snarled, taking a single step forward. “May you taste the fear of death a thousand times. If there’s a god out there, I pray he lets me be the one who twists the knife each and every time. I hope you live forever, because you are not worthy of death. I cu—”

James lunged for me, slapping his hand over my mouth. His other arm snaked around me, yanking me to him. “He’s not worth it.”

I bit him hard enough to draw blood, but he didn’t let me go. Maybe James was right. Maybe Mark wasn’t worth my curse. I blinked away my tears.

“If I were you, Mark,” James began, still holding me in a firm group, “I would be very careful about what you say from now on.”

“Why?” Mark spat.

“Next time, I’ll let her finish what she started. A werewolf’s curse on a soul is not easily broken. Then you’ll understand what pack truly means.”

“It’s snowing harder.” James paced near the window, halting to stare out at the snow. “It’s only a matter of time before they use the surveillance system and find out where we are. If they send the coven, we’re in trouble.”

Mark snorted.
“Don’t underestimate me, werewolf.”

“They outnumber us twenty to one, Mark. I don’t like those odds.”

“What surveillance system?” I asked, scanning the room. The corners of the room didn’t have any obvious cameras. When I had been victim of the Inquisition, cameras hadn’t been invented.

“There are micro cameras embedded in the furniture. The wires are tapped. There are probably a few bugs planted around here somewhere, too. Usually the systems are shut off unless the room is occupied.” James shrugged. “I helped them set it up. Nothing should be activated, unless they’re already onto us. They don’t waste the electricity on empty cells.”

Mark scowled. “So we get rid of them.”

The Brit’s laugh was strained. “Easier said than done, shaman. A strong
EMP might fry some of them. Sorry, I didn’t bring a sweep with me. I didn’t think I’d need it here. I should’ve known better.”

I glanced at the window. “How strong of a pulse do you need?”

“Pretty strong. Most of them are shielded. Even a sweeper might not catch all of their toys.” James shook his head. “Nothing short of a lightning strike would work considering what we have.”

My mouth twitched as I fought the urge to smile. Turning rain to snow was one thing. Summoning a hurricane was the sort of insanity I had never believed myself capable of. Thunder and lightning I could handle, so long as I didn’t fry us in the process.

The storms sang in my head, their incessant duet full of energy. Maybe with a little luck, the storms would be willing to cooperate. Devonshire wouldn’t hesitate to finish me off once he figured out I still lived.

If a little lightning would ruin his plans and buy us a little time, Mark and James would get all of the lightning wanted and more. I cracked my knuckles. “Lightning, huh?”

James eyed me warily. “Do you have an idea, Lady Hanover?”

I smiled. “Maybe. But first, Mark. What sort of shaman are you?”

A sullen stare answered me.

“Mark,” I growled.

“Wolf.”

I snorted. “Good. How long can you hold your form?”

“Two hours, three if I really must.”

“If I can buy us a little time without being noticed, I think I have an idea,” I said, facing the window. “You’ll have to trust me, though.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Mark muttered.

I laughed so I could ignore the sharp edge of my anxiety. “Good. That means you’re not as dumb as you look. Once I blow the cameras and bugs, we’ll make our plans. Then we’ll bust out of this joint.”

“You can blow the surveillance system?” James asked, his eyes widening.

“Oh, I can do so much more than that,” I replied, pressing my hand to the window. “I do recommend you step away from the furniture though, gentlemen.”

By the time I was done, I was going to fry a lot more than the surveillance systems. My lightning wouldn’t reach the lower levels of the complex, but I’d make a mess of the upper floors.

The Inquisition could afford the repair bills.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the presence of the storms in the back of my head, webbed in the coercive call of my magic. I could feel where my energy siphoned out of me, fueling the violence of the weather.

I imagined the room and the building as a whole.
Come,
I thought to the sky.
Come, lightning. Singe, but do not burn. Surge, destroy, strike!

The thunder crashed overhead and a white light burned through my closed eyelids. Mark and James cried out behind me. The stench of melting plastic assaulted my nose. A tingle passed through me. Another crack resounded, and the floor shook beneath me.

“Bloody hell,” James gasped.

The storms rejoiced in my skull, their song drowning out all other sound for a moment.
Be quiet,
I demanded. The thunder’s rumble softened. The noise in my head diminished. I opened my eyes and turned away from the window.

James and Mark stared at me, their mouths hanging open. Their hair stood on end.

A laugh burst out of me. “That look suits you.”

“What have you done?” James whispered.

“You wanted the surveillance system fried. I fried the surveillance system.”

“With lightning.”

I shrugged. “With lightning.”

“How?” Mark asked.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I stared at the two. They stared back. “I take back what I said earlier. You are both as dumb as you look. Neither one of you has figured it out?”

Mark’s eyes widened. “Impossible.”

I glanced at Mark, nodding in confirmation. “You would have figured it out soon enough. I have to do something flashy to get us out of here.” I drew a deep breath, held it for a minute, and then let it out in a long sigh. “You wanted Aurora’s help. Fine, you’re getting it. But in exchange, you will forget I exist.” I jabbed my finger at Mark. “You never saw me. You’ll search to the ends of the Earth, and you will never, ever find a clue of my existence.” I turned to James. “The same applies to you.”

“You’re not serious.” James rubbed at his temple. “Mark’s right; it’s impossible.”

“You believe I’m almost two hundred years old, but you can’t believe I’m Aurora?” I slapped my palm against my forehead. “You two are going to drive me mad.”

Both of them flinched.

“Oh give me a break. You do want a chance to escape from here, don’t you? After dark, it’ll be colder, and it’s easier to work with the ice then, but I might be able to do something now. Mark, you’ll need your wolf shape to last three hours. James, I’m trusting you to take him far from here.”

“What are you planning, Allison?” Mark crossed his arms over his chest.

“Vengeance,” I said. “I’m giving you your life, Mark. You too, James. I’m going to open the way for you. When I’m done here, I’ll follow.”

Judging from the widening of their eyes, I didn’t need to tell them that the chances of my leaving the outpost alive were slim. I stared them both down.

“Why?” James asked.

It amazed me how one word could ask so many questions. I smiled. “Why would I let you go? Samantha liked you, Mark. I might want to tear your head off your shoulders right now, but killing you won’t bring her back. As for you, James, you spared the kids. I’d forgive you for almost anything because of that. Why am I after vengeance? You two are just the dogs of the Inquisition. It’s your master I want. I have a chance. Why am I willing to die? I’m old. Without Samantha, you’ll find out the reasons the Inquisition hunts rogue wolves. It’s better for everyone this way.”

James sucked in a breath. “She was controlling your wolf.”

“That is why witches bond with wolves, pup. Ask your Alpha next time you see him. With each change, it gets harder to define where human ends and wolf begins. Eventually, all that is left is the wolf. One day, I’ll change, and I’ll forget I was ever a human at all. My witch—Samantha—she controlled that. I can’t risk changing again, not yet. Not now.”

It was the truth, mostly. Without Samantha, I didn’t know how long I would last until I ran wild. I could delay the inevitable for a while. It was unnecessary, though.

I was too tired to hope I would leave the outpost alive.

It surprised me how easy it was to accept that simple fact.

“Change,” I ordered, lifting my chin. “I’ll need your boots, James.”

“My boots?”

“You’ll just have to trust me. Choose. Change into wolves, and do as you’re told, or I summon some more lightning and make you both the targets instead of the cameras. It doesn’t matter to me either way.”

James drew a deep breath. Suspicion darkened his eyes before he acknowledged my lie with a frown and a slight nod. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?”

“No.”

“Bloody hell. What about Anderson? He’s as much of a victim of this as you are. Devonshire changed his sister and held her hostage to force his obedience.”

“Devonshire will pay. Is his sister in the cells?”

James winced. “No. She’s not. He set her loose in the wilds. There’s no way anyone will find her now.”

“So long as he doesn’t cross me, I will show him mercy,” I promised. “Now change.”

Mark bit his lip. I met Mark’s eyes. I don’t know why I smiled, but I did. Maybe I wanted to acknowledge him before I drove him away for good. It was better for both of us.

When I thought he was going to argue, he nodded his head and stripped out of his clothes. James followed his lead. I put on James’s discarded boots. Then I waited for them to finish their transformations, averting my eyes so I didn’t have to watch the process.

Within several minutes a pair of wolves stared at me with solemn golden eyes. It was easy to tell them apart. Mark was unremarkable, a small, ordinary gray wolf in all regards. James shared Mark’s coloring, but was the size of a mastiff.

I picked up one of the chairs, and drawing on my werewolf strength, I smashed the window. Icy air blasted into me, staggering me back several steps. It took several more blows to remove enough of the glass to make an opening large enough for the wolves to slip through without cutting themselves.

The rest of my fledgling plan hinged on the storms cooperating with me.

I focused on the songs in my head. Wild, fierce joy surged through me. Standing on the edge, I stared down at the snow five stories below. I reached upward, splaying my fingers in my effort to touch the dark clouds overhead.

“Ice,” I begged of the storm, focusing my thoughts on the image of a slide from the window to the ground, strong enough to support the two wolves.

The cacophony of the storms bickering swelled in my skull.

A low rumble, like the passage of a train, shook the entire building. The clouds swirled counter-clockwise. Snow melted, shifting to a warm rain. A black funnel snaked down from the clouds, striking the ground below the window, sucking the air out of the room. My feet slipped out from underneath me.

Teeth dug into my arm, and with a jerk of his head, James jerked me away from the brink. Pain lanced up my arm, and the heat of my blood dripped down from the jagged tears near my wrist. Blinking away the blur in my eyes, I twisted around to face the window.

Some witches liked using chants or words of power to direct their magic. No matter what I said, I was fighting against nature and weather. Pretty words and futile gestures weren’t going to force the storm to obey my will.

All I could do was hope my demands would be humored.

“Ice!”

The tornado threw snow into the air, sucking the falling rain into is dark embrace. A wall of white blasted into the room, caking me in snow. Flashes of light turned the gloom of the morning to the brightness of noon.

Then I saw nothing as the snow and the rain whipped me in the face. The storm sucked the air from my lungs. To my dismay, darkness shrouded my vision, leaving me to listen to the triumphant song of the storms as the cold and the wind sought to drain the life out of me.

I refused to succumb, lifting my chin. I would not fall. I would not falter.

Vengeance would be mine.

~*~

Hail slammed in through the ruins of the window, bouncing across the carpet to pile around my feet. By the laws of nature, tornadoes connected the sky and the ground in swirling masses of air capable of destroying everything in their paths.