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Sighing, I fully detached my wand from my belt and leaned against a brick wall in the middle of an alley. We’d gotten out of the downtown area to a residential area with plenty of apartment buildings, none of them the one I lived in. “Oswald, you’re summoned,” I muttered under my breath, hoping that whoever was following me didn’t have an exceptional sense of hearing. Then again, with how long they’d been following me from a distance, they probably had all exceptional senses.
My familiar appeared in front of me, orange fur sticking up at odd angles. I’d interrupted him in the middle of a cat bath.“I was wondering why you weren’t home.”
“Didn’t think to check on me?”
“You always call me when something has happened.”
“Whatever. I’ve had a tail for an hour, can’t shake him. I figured I would camp here and wait for him to get impatient.”
Feathers ruffled from above, and I stiffened, glancing in that direction. Few birds were active at this time of night, a bit too early still for their morning shenanigans. Bird shifters, however, didn’t follow the same patterns. It would explain how he’d been able to follow me for so long without detection.
“Of course it’s a fucking bird,”Ozzy grumbled, coming to the same conclusion.“I’ll throw up some shields for you when he deigns to bless us with his presence. Fuck, it would be so much easier if I could just eat him like I can with regular birds.”
“You don’t even eat them, only drink their blood.”
“Whatever. I think he’s coming down.”
A swooping form came down from the roof of the building I was leaning against, shifting into his human form as he landed. He was buck naked, and I averted my eyes to look at his face. His lips were curled up into a distinct sneer. When he attempted to step closer to me, I lifted my wand and starting drawing a rune in the air. The edges of the marking glowed silver, one stroke away from completion.
I doubted he had much direct knowledge of runic magic, but everyone knew you didn’t fuck with it. Witches may be seen as weak, but they were vindictive. Me especially. And runes were a great base for a curse.
Come to think of it, maybe I should look into runic curses and see if a curse like Ozzy’s was mentioned in any of my books.
“No need to be so antagonistic,” he said. “All I wanted was your number. I’ve never seen such a pretty bartender before.”
The breeze sent his scent in my direction, and I crinkled my nose. Manure and wet bird. Neither were pleasant notes. This wasn’t an Alpha, but a Beta, so it said something that my biology cringed away from him. Typically, I would only have such a powerful reaction to an unsuitable Alpha.
“Following me when I left wasn’t the best way to ask for my number.”
“Would you have given it to me if I asked?”
“Absolutely fucking not.”
He glanced between Oswald and I, taking a moment to observe the glimmering magical energy. Then he loosed a sigh. “Kylan won’t be happy with me. I was supposed to find out where you live. Oh well. I’ve heard that you have someone dangerous taking care of you, plus that pesky familiar, and I’d like to keep my life. I’ll leave you with a warning from him instead.”
My back stiffened, fingers gripping my wand tight enough the length would have snapped if it wasn’t magically reinforced. It was slight consolation that they still believed someone else was taking care of me, not that I was the dangerous one.
“He’s going to get you. If you go to him willingly, you’ll have a much better time. He’s only curious, you see, about the Omega who kept herself hidden in his territory for years. No ill will towards you. You come with me right now and you’ll have a grand time.”
“No way in hell.”
His sneer came back in full force, having been dropped when he was trying to win me over. “All the better. We’ll come for you, witch, with a small army next time. You won’t be able to elude us forever.”
Shifting into his owl form once again, he took flight and was gone, the phantom feeling of eyes on me finally disappearing.
I wouldn’t be able to keep going like this. He was right. But the answer wasn’t giving up. That wasn’t who I was. The answer was to do what I should have done years ago, when I first realized I had a problem and my scent wasn’t as Beta as I’d thought. The answer was going on the offensive.
Hit Kylan before he hit me, right where it hurt.
All I needed to do was find the best way to make him bleed.
Chapter 14
Shan
Myfocuswasbeingpulled in ten different directions at once, with Freya being the most prominent draw by far. Giving her anything less than my full attention was hard. Especially now, with dreams of my past life plaguing me every night. And sometimes morphing into midday daydreams.
“Shan, do you think she was serious about asking me out?” Caspian asked me, his voice low and half drowned out under the music. His entire body was tense, pupils wide, as he tried to look like he was unaffected. It surprised me Freya hadn’t noticed more about his panicked reaction. Then again, she didn’t know him quite as well as I did.
