Page 43 of Ignited

Boomer breathed a sigh of relief when Karisma finally allowed DB to examine her. He just hoped the kid could do something.

And that Thanatos wasn’t going to fuck things up for her. The old troll—or whatever he was—had his own reasons for doing everything he did. He was also ruthless and didn’t like women, and there was no guarantee he wouldn’t sacrifice Karisma if he thought he had to.

Boomer just had to figure out a way to make sure that didn’t happen.

But right now, he felt about as useful as a dud grenade.

DB was mostly up to speed on Karisma’s story. Boomer had made Sugar send him the security footage from Thanatos’ office, and filled him in on everything else he knew over the phone.

Except about the Barbie box. He’d made Karisma a promise about that.

DB asked some questions, and did a magic scan where he held his hands over various areas of her body and made them glow.

Boomer could tell it was upsetting her, because different parts of her kept turning tiger and going back to human. Which was starting to freak him out.

Shifters could get stuck between forms—or stuck in a permanent Change flux, like Karisma seemed to be. If it went on for too long, the stress on their body and psyche could kill them.

But he clenched his fists and let DB do his thing. If he and the Al-Maddeiri dragons couldn’t help her, no one could. And that was fucking not acceptable.

Then DB asked Mikey for the potion bottle, which she had in a Ziploc bag. DB took it absently, his eyes still on Karisma.

Boomer said, “I was thinking you could analyze the potion somehow, so you could make more? Don’t you have a lab back at Al-Maddeiri?”

DB rolled his eyes. “Yeah. If only there were some way to do that.” He took the potion bottle out of the bag and sniffed it. Then he tasted a tiny bit, and finally waved his hand over the vial, making magical colors appear over it like miniature Northern Lights.

So he didn’t need a lab. Fine. Whatever.

Finally DB nodded. “Like I thought, it’s a stabilizer. Mitigating the effects of magic in a creature’s system. Crude, but effective in its way.”

“Can you make her more?” Boomer found himself holding his breath.

DB tucked the vial into a pocket in his backpack. “I could. I could make a better version, actually. But that’s not a long-term solution. The potion is meant to counteract transitory spells or other potions—magic that’s temporarily in a creature’s system.” He turned to Karisma. “You were exposed to yours for so long, the magic became more or less permanent. So the effect of the potion diminishes over time.”

Karisma shook her head. “I’ve been using it for years.”

“Yeah,” DB said, looking pointedly at her tail. “How’s that working out for you lately?”

She growled. “So you can’t help me?”

“I didn’t say that. I absolutely have a way to help you.” DB made a face. “But you’re really, really not going to like it.”

Chapter 19

Boomer watched Karisma’s lips get tight. He could feel her disappointment like it was his own, feel her putting up walls against hope that she was going to get help from anyone except herself.

He’d backed off to let DB examine her, but now he scooted back over next to her and put his hand on her leg. He said to DB, “So what can you do?”

DB was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of them, eating another Twinkie. “What I can do, is a spell that should clean the residual magic out of her system, and let her reestablish a normal balance with her tiger.”

Boomer looked at Karisma. She looked at him. That sounded awesome, but…

Karisma turned back to DB. “What’s the catch?”

“Well, we’re talking about embedded systemic magic. It’s dangerous.”

“How dangerous?” Boomer asked. “Like, life-threatening dangerous?”

“Probably not?” DB didn’t sound nearly sure enough about that. “And it will affect her connection with her tiger for a while. No way of telling how long.”