Under Witch Curse (Moon Shadow Series) (24 page)

Mat rolled her eyes. “Don’t pretend you don’t recognize me. I’ve been here almost every day since you opened!”

He smiled. “You are my best customer. I hear you talk of Kevin. He is a big help, yes?”

There went my smile, but Mat was a better saleswoman than I’d ever be. Her composure never slipped while she babbled praises.

He refused another tip, and we couldn’t leave fast enough. I really hoped Kevin wasn’t involved.

We skipped down the street to the alleyway behind her place. Mat chattered on about the spell packet designs. “No matter what happens, the new packets will be totally awesome. I bet even you will want to sell a spell or three in my store.”

“Hmm.” She knew I wouldn’t sell them openly. “If you get a special client, we can talk about you being the intermediary. Lynx is busier than ever these days, but I still only work on request, and only for clients you’ve checked out.” That was closer than I’d ever come to selling in her store.

Mat stopped and clapped a hand over her mouth to trap a squeal of delight. Around her fingers she asked, “Really?”

My eyes narrowed. “Why? Do you have a client in mind?”

She shook her head. “Nooo. I’ve sent a few people to you, but always through Lynx. I’d love to go more direct.”

“You can be direct. Just leave my name out of it. And I’d prefer clients you already know and trust.”

“I’ll sort through my client list today! This is like winning the lottery.”

Since she was focused on me, she didn’t notice the discarded jeans and t-shirt tucked near the dumpster, but I did. My feet halted. I checked the rest of the alley before Mat noticed my wariness.

I pointed to the jeans. “Last time there was a pile of clothes in your alleyway, Zandy was inside about to make mincemeat of you and Gordon.”

She went unnaturally still and the side of her neck turned the brilliant flush that only a redhead can maintain.

“He might not be in your place. You said you have silver in there?” Liquid silver might not provide me with as much information as regular silver, because it was stored in a jar. “And a dagger, right?”

Her eyes went distant. “Lend me your water bottle.”

Since I almost always carried one, it wasn’t a stretch for her to know it was attached to my backpack. I extracted it from the side pocket.

“Thanks.” She unscrewed the top. As a water witch, if she had a few drops of water or even a mirror, she could pull reflections, especially standing this close to her own environment. Not knowing how well her magic would perform under these circumstances, I concentrated on finding the silver she had told me about.

She was way ahead of me. “That is absolutely it!” she screamed.

The ground under my feet rumbled.

“Uh, Mat...” Any water within reach roiled and churned as viciously as her temper. There was a roar, a crash and yelling up the street. From the sound of things, the hydrant’s new moorings went the way of the water in my bottle, tossed aside like so much garbage.

“Mat, we’ll stop him! We’ll get backup. Trap him in there and this time make sure he doesn’t have another chance to return.”

Like a whirlwind, she flew at her backdoor, twisting the knob. The lock was intact, but she already had her key ready. As she threw the bolts she yelled, “
You dare, bastard coyote!”

“Or I guess we can just kick his ass ourselves,” I said. As I scooted behind my friend, the ring on my finger tingled. For the first time, my head was clear enough to detect the magic flowing through it. My fingers squeezed the gold, which squeezed the diamond. Half of that was raw emotion, but it was enough to suck wind in, and the guy on the other end was very attuned to wind.

I had just put White Feather on notice that I was running straight into danger like a fool.

Chapter 31

Maybe if I hadn’t been so focused on the ring, I’d have heard the footsteps behind me. Then again, maybe not. The guy was good and obviously had some martial arts training. He had my arm yanked back and would have pinned it solidly except my backpack was in the way. He was strong too, swinging my body sideways into the door frame.

Luckily I twisted, an instinctive reaction. The brunt of the blow bruised my shoulder and cheekbone rather than breaking my nose.

My assailant smashed the backpack out of the way using my own arm against me. That kept most of my firepower trapped between the two of us. Setting off any of the lethal spells in the pack would burn me as much as him, maybe more.

I spun my bracelet with my fingers and flicked the catch. I pushed the beads and arrowheads all at once.

The guy mangling my arm jammed my face in the door frame again. I directed the silver and heard the delightful sound of popping and smacking, even as a stray silver ball grazed the side of my own head. The only failure was the lack of sizzling flesh as the silver hit. The guy wasn’t a shifter.

I called them back almost before they could ricochet off the adobe walls.

“What the hell?” the voice near my head muttered.

Since he wasn’t a shifter, I concentrated harder on the arrowheads. It was impossible to say how accurately they hit, but he yelled, “Ah!” and his hold loosened enough for me to twist partially free.

I lifted on my toes and smashed my head back, but I missed. “Moonlight mad—!”

He crashed against me, flattening us both against the wall. My cheek throbbed, but it didn’t stop my fingers from searching along the side of the backpack still caught between us. If I could reach...the fireball packets on the side...

From inside, Mat screamed, “Die, bastard coyote, die!” The smell of burning fur billowed out the door, followed by the yelp of a coyote.

Hadn’t Zandy learned anything?

My groping foot found an instep. I slammed down, still flinging silver beads at the enemy. He gasped, either from the foot or another lucky strike. Mentally, I reached for the silver knife I had intended to give Mat, but it was inside a leather sheath and my backpack was zipped.

I twisted my hand, locking my fingernails into his skin. He yanked me in hard, cursing in my ear, a muttered threat as he struggled to secure his grasp. My new necklace danced sideways, and I teetered against the doorway.

The necklace was silver and sharp. I wasn’t that controlled in my aim and couldn’t see my target, but I flung the strands of silver anyway. The obsidian nearly choked me as it flew backwards.

My diamond ring flashed heat.

I twisted again. Gravity tumbled me sideways, but in a half crouch, I found myself facing the enemy.

“Lee,” I gasped his name out in accusation. The nail tech from Tam’s salon batted ineffectively at the silver raining down on his head. Blood dripped from a cut across his nose and neck, but he launched a karate kick anyway.

The wall trapped me, and the kick sent a shooting pain through my thigh, buckling my leg.

I rolled and divested myself of my backpack. With my hands freed, the fireball packets in the side pocket were better than a chocolate bar. I crushed the first packet, whispered the word of power, and threw it. His fancy high kick left him vulnerable.

I aimed an arrowhead squarely at the blood already leaking from the wound on his neck. I smashed another fireball, mixing the elements. Even if the fireballs failed to start him on fire, they usually convinced anyone with any sense to run.

Even though my second lob was dead center, Lee was apparently too stunned to do more than land on his ass and roll away from the flames.

He was stronger than me and faster. The silver would have worked great against a shifter, but he wasn’t one. My spell needed an enhancement or two when it came to the mundane.

I’d have lobbed another fireball, but Mat screamed.

“Aztec—” I bit off the rest of the curse, called my silver and ran for the door. Before I reached it, Lynx rounded the corner of the alley at a dead run. I paused to yell, “Keep this guy here! And don’t come inside unless you have to. Silver will be flying.”

Lynx was nothing if not cat. Once he focused on his prey, his eyes glowed that unblinking, predator yellow. His stare alone might keep the guy from running.

I tossed my remaining fireball to Lynx. He knew many of my spells required crushing. He didn’t know the word to set it off, but Lee didn’t know that.

Lynx caught the spell with the speed and dexterity of swishing claws. Those lethal points ought to be more than enough of a deterrent, even without the fireball.

I paused long enough to extract my silver dagger from its sheath and dashed inside, feeling silver everywhere. That message from Mother Earth was confusing until I sorted it with my own eyes.

Mat was not in as much trouble as her scream implied, but she was definitely enraged.

Zandy was nearly bald from splashes of colloidal silver. He was half changed so that he could rub the silver off or expel it, but whatever she had concocted, it was sticky.

From the way she was holding her own silver dagger, it was possible she needed a lesson or two on proper slashing techniques, but she had enough colloidal silver smeared on her person that it didn’t matter. Zandy couldn’t touch her.

“You’re dead!” Zandy screamed. “He won’t wait around for you to trap him! He’ll use your carcass until you bleed dry like the rest of’em.”

Zandy had always been big on talking and whining. “Yeah, yeah,” I interrupted his tirade. “If you move, I’ll beat you to a pulp and clean the floor with whatever is left.” I wasn’t covered in silver like my friend, but the silver beads were right behind me, ready to roll.

He was not impressed. He attacked, changing fully to coyote on his way to me.

I was much better with my aim this time around. He swallowed two pellets. The arrowhead hit him in the eye and stayed there. I slashed with the knife and spun sideways. Very helpfully, Mat hit me in the chest with a water balloon full of silver.

I did lie though. I left the floor bloody instead of using Zandy to mop up the damage.

Chapter 32

Gordon was stuck with the pleasant job of preparing Zandy to be carted off to the hospital. Normally shifters healed fast, especially if they could change a few times, but healing was more difficult when the wounds were due to silver. In Zandy’s case, changing was nearly impossible, coated as he was with the sticky stuff. On top of that, he was nearly incapacitated from having swallowed two silver pellets.

Zandy was much less threatening as a human, but only because of the lack of snapping canines. His brown hair was tangled where it wasn’t outright burned. He was as wiry in his human form as he was as a coyote. His pale brown eyes were just as shifty too, with a cruel glint that flickered when one of the cops dragged a burned and bruised Lee into the shop.

Gordon snapped on special handcuffs made of sterling silver. He used the excuse of the wounds to wrap Zandy’s wrists underneath, but any squirming would put the silver bracelets in direct contact.

White Feather assured me that Gordon’s team knew how to handle Zandy.

“But how often do shifters end up in the hospital?” Zandy was as wily as coyotes came. “He pukes up those silver balls and changes a time or two, he’ll run.”

White Feather frowned, but Gordon didn’t have time for nosy questions.

Mat was out of sight washing up and recovering what she could of the silver. I was in awe of her water balloon idea. She’d aimed and fired like a baseball pro. Other than the one she had gripped too tightly and exploded on her person, she had hit her target unfailingly. The one that doused her had played to her advantage. Zandy stood no chance of attacking her without injuring himself.

“Twenty of the things,” I gushed. “She went all out. I’ll add silver to my fireballs so that I can call them to me. Store them in an area of my backpack where they aren’t tied down. If I redo my dagger sheath, I could call it too.”

“I’m going to put
you
on a tether,” White Feather muttered, encircling me with his arm and squishing me into his side. “I’d much rather rescue you myself, but thank God Lynx was in the area when I called him.”

“Ah, that explains how he showed up in such a timely manner.”

“I phoned his cell while driving here. He had been tracking Zandy, narrowing in. He might have arrived anyway.”

It wasn’t quick, but Gordon’s team finally hauled Zandy away. I made sure that Gordon knew about the two pellets Zandy had swallowed. “If he expels those, he’ll require a silver jail cell to keep him from escaping.”

Gordon passed the info along to the parties who needed to know.

Since Lee’s burns were painful but not critical, one of the officers supplied first aid cream, but Gordon didn’t process him right away. His shirt was nothing but tattered and burned remnants. If he was cold, who cared?

Not me. My own face still throbbed from being slammed into the door frame. Lee deserved nothing more than the third degree, starting with who he worked for on the burglaries.

Lee squirmed under our combined glares, but he answered. “Guy calls himself Jedi ‘cause he says he can call the force. He’s an old white guy, more like Shatner than stupid Jedi, but he’s into all those stories, Frankenstein and Dracula crap. Thought he was all talk when we started casing a few joints, but the guy is for real. We just had to help him with a tat. So, I let him and Zandy into Tam’s place. Kevin leaves his designs there all the time. Customers sort through them for their nails.”

“You had a key?” I demanded.

“Sure.”

Gordon stared him down.

He didn’t even drop his eyes. “I borrowed it from Tam one day and made a copy.”

“Borrowed,” Gordon repeated.

He shrugged. “It was on the counter.”

“Okay,” Gordon said. “You stole a key and some tat designs. Then what?”

“Easy. We found someone who wanted a tat, no problem. No reason not to use Tam’s place. There was already a table and supplies.”

“Yeah, other than it was breaking and entering,” I muttered.

He shrugged. “We didn’t take nothing. Jedi did the tat. I knew where things were in the shop, alcohol swabs, whatever. Then he said he was gonna call the force. Zandy and me, we about busted a gut laughing, but Jedi, he made the tat come alive. It was like he said, some kind of Frankenstein. The lady, she was a zombie, lay’n there drooling, but the tat, it did whatever Jedi told it to. He said he used his blood in the tat so it had to obey him.”