I had no intention of doing that. Instead, I said, “Done. In fact, I’m making you a partner, starting today.” I grinned at her stunned expression. “Don’t act like you don’t deserve it. You kept the business alive while I was in the Underworld. You hired Naomi, which was genius. You’re already head of operations. We’d be nothing without you. Nick will agree with the promotion wholeheartedly.” I didn’t have to address the fact that witches had to charge for their services. It was part of their creed. Marcy was on the Hannon & Michaels payroll, but spelling on demand required much, much more. So I was going to happily give it to her.
“Well, then, okay.” She smoothed out her wrinkled but now perfectly dry pants. “I accept.”
I chuckled. “Of course you do. That means from now on you get a third of the profits. And, out of curiosity, can you really spell it to seem like we were never here?” I asked. “That’s fairly impressive and totally handy.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “I can wipe this place clean faster than you can say ‘your great aunt Fanny is a witch.’ ”
“Perfect.”
“It’s a good thing for you there’s no supernatural union,” she joked. “Or profit sharing might not be enough for my stellar spell-crafting.”
“I have no doubt you’d start one if you could.” I winked at her as I sloshed out of the muck toward Naomi and Ray, careful to make sure my shoes stayed attached. I was also on the lookout for snakes and gators. Marcy was right—this place was teeming with them. And even though I didn’t see any, I could smell them, and that was just as bad.
Both vamps were on high alert, scanning the area as well as the sky.
“We have to get out of here, Hannon,” Ray said as I came up to stand next to him. “Planes will be scouring the area soon. We’re remote, but a helicopter or small jet can be here lickety-split.”
“One of you is going to have to take Marcy,” I said. “Rourke and I will shift and head out on foot. We’ll meet you once we’re clear of this area.” I glanced over at Naomi. She had flown over this area last night on a scouting mission. “What direction do we head in?” I asked her.
“When I was high in the sky, I spotted our destination,” she answered. “We will need to move north for some miles, before shifting to the west. We will plan to meet up with you in two hours. That should give you enough time to reach a paved road. If you go northwest right away, there is very little land and much more water.”
“Okay, so we’ll head north for an hour, and then we’ll edge northwest. We’ll look for you two hours after we head out.” I scanned the horizon. There was nothing but marshland for as far as the eye could see. Running and swimming through the Everglades was going to suck, there was no question about it. Naomi had told me before we boarded the plane that my father planned to exchange himself as a prisoner to free some of his wolves. I wanted to arrive before that happened. He’d already been cursed once, and the evil yellow masses that had coursed through his body had eaten him alive from the inside out. It had nearly taken his life and I wasn’t willing to risk it again.
I turned a pointed look on Ray, my lips pursed.
“What?” he asked, shrugging. “What’d I do now?”
“Nothing,” I said, hiding a smile. “But it seems at every turn we’ve taken, we’re damn lucky to have you around. The cursed wolves are going to be extremely hard to deal with, and don’t think I’ve forgotten that the only reason my father is alive right now is because of you—and your new skill set.” Ray was a reaper and a vampire. His latent reaper genes had been activated by his transition into a vampire and a healthy dose of my blood. “Before this is over, I predict you’re going to be one tired reaper.”
Before Ray could respond, Rourke jumped out of the plane, handing Marcy what she needed from the pilots. He turned his attention on us, calling, “Naomi and Ray, you guys take to the sky immediately. We need you up there to get a read on our situation. If there are any planes in the air, we need to know which direction they’re coming in from.”
Ray nodded. “We’re on it. But by the time we come back, you need to be ready to vacate.”
“We’ll be ready.” Rourke waded over to me. “You and I will shift, but if the planes are already on their way, they’ll fly low, sweeping the area. Seeing a wolf and a big cat racing through the marsh is going to be an epic red flag. So Ray’s right—we need to leave immediately, and once we do, we need to move fast.”
“I have no doubt we can cover a lot of ground, but maybe Marcy can help us as well.” I turned and called, “Hey, is it possible for you to conceal our animal forms from humans if they fly over?”
She looked up from the hank of hair she held in her hand—Rourke’s contribution to the DNA. “Nope. Sorry to disappoint you. In order to do that, I’d need to be strapped to your back—which would be completely hilarious, and I’d be totally up for it, but something tells me that wouldn’t be your thing. If I had an ingestible spell with me, it would be a different story. And can I just take a moment here to say that if I would’ve known ahead of time you were going to be pursued by the scariest, most ancient supes on the planet, I would have brewed up some potions.” She leaned forward and cupped her empty hand around her mouth. “And, just between us, even though I’m not officially allowed to brew my own spells yet, they rock. It’s against Coven rules for a non-member to brew, blah, blah, blah. But my spells are superior to anything those hacks can produce.”