“I have no clue where he is,” I huffed. The bastard could have gone back to the Vane estate for all I knew. And if he had, we were fucked, because not even I could get past those wards.
My gaze slid over to the witch’s familiar. The kitsune had been unusually quiet and non-irritating since my mate collapsed at the club. I suspected he knew what was wrong with her, but since I couldn’t speak kitsune, it didn’t help us.
He looked up and then blinked out of view, reappearing a minute later with a phone gripped in his claws. I recognized the gold case.
“Is Alaric on campus?” The kitsune nodded. “In his dorm?” He nodded again.
“Be right back, folks.”
Since the mage had never invited me into his apartment, I couldn’t teleport in. But I could make a nuisance of myself outside.
It turned out singing at the top of my voice was enough to attract his attention. Who knew the mage wasn’t a fan of the human pop singer Taylor Swift? Not me. I rather liked Taylor’s tunes.
In fact, I found her song, “Anti-Hero,” very relatable because ninety-nine percent of the time, I was the problem too.
“What the actual fuck are you doing, Zane?” Alaric’s door slammed open against the wall as thunder rumbled above us.Oops.He wasn’t happy. Oh well.
“Getting your attention.” I smirked. “Found your phone yet?”
He frowned. “Phone?” Confusion turned into rage when he reached into his pocket and came up empty-handed. “Give me back my phone or I’ll…”
“This phone?” I pulled his gold-plated handset from my jeans pocket and held it up. Such a pretty case. Probably super expensive. And custom-made, knowing the mage.
It would be a real shame if it disappeared into a pocket realm, never to be seen again.
He lunged for the phone, but I blinked out of view and reappeared ten feet away, still holding the device.
“Give me back my fucking phone before I blast you into the demon realm!” A lightning bolt struck the ground a foot away, splattering me with snow and mud, but I just laughed.
“Ooh, it’s unlocked,” I taunted, pretending to type in his PIN. “Naughty mage, have you been messaging sirens on Magigram?”
“Of course I fucking haven’t!” The moron fired another lightning bolt at me. Lightning and electrical devices rarely played nicely together, whereas I would be just fine.
“Good to know. I can’t kill you, but I can make life fucking painful for you.” I shoved the phone back into my pocket. “Get your ass to the bear’s cabin. Our witch needs healing magic.” Not waiting for him to reply, I blinked away.
4
Alaric
Fucking irritating incubus.I stomped down the trail toward the cabin where the bear shifter lived while on campus. Thunder rumbled overhead, lightning flashing at intervals. In truth, I should have thanked him for stealing my phone. It gave me a legitimate reason to delay going home.
Dad expected me back by tomorrow evening. Just for one night, thankfully. Most likely to get me in the same room as Petronella, even though Kinara was barely cold in her grave.
Assuming Brianna hadn’t dug her up already.
Black magic required sacrifice, and a fresh corpse was essential for some spells. Don’t ask me how I knew this. My stomach still curdled at the memory of Rink carving up a recently deceased servant girl. The sickly sweet stench of rotten flesh had lingered for days.
Knowing what I did about black magic, I had to wonder whether the abduction of lesser magicals was linked to Brianna’s evil experiments.
If I got the chance tomorrow, I would visit the dungeons to see if she had anyone imprisoned down there other than my mother. And if she did, maybe I could figure out what my father and his evil witch wife were up to.
The wind roared through the thick trees, so cold I could feel the kiss of ice in my bone marrow despite my thick down-filled jacket. I could have cast a heat spell, but the frigid temperatures helped distract me from all that was wrong in my world.
The closer I got to Maverick’s cabin, the more I wondered why the incubus had been so insistent that I come. Surely if the witch had a headache or whatever, she could visit the healers, right?
There’d been nothing wrong with her when I left Thornville. Had she sustained some kind of sex injury? Or maybe the vampire asshole had sucked her dry?
It was a distinct possibility. Vampires on the brink of starvation were feral creatures, ruled by their bloodlust. Sure, the vampire prince was older than dirt, but it didn’t mean he was immune to bloodlust.
