Carmen reluctantly slipped her shields back into place, sat up and leaned over him. “And that’s why everyone but Kat tiptoes around you.”
“That’s why.” The corner of his mouth kicked up in a tiny, morbid smile. “Plus all the crazy things I’ve done since.”
“Crazy things?” The urge to kiss him again almost overwhelmed her, so she climbed to her feet and held out her hand. “Surely tackling women and kissing them stupid qualifies, so I won’t argue.”
He accepted her hand, but rocked to his feet with effortless grace without her help. “Nah, that’s on the tame side. Last year I kidnapped a Conclave member’s kid in someone else’s truck.”
Carmen laughed helplessly. “Somehow, the fact that it was someone else’s vehicle makes it sound crazier.”
“He wasn’t thrilled at the time either, as I remember.”
“The owner of said truck, or the person you kidnapped?”
“Neither, I guess.”
“Uh-huh.” She hadn’t released his hand, and now she tugged him toward the path. “Let’s go have a beer.”
“In a second.” He pulled her back and turned her, raising both hands to her shoulders. “You seem steadier today, so I want to try something tonight, after dinner. I want to try to guide you through the change.”
“I told you—I don’t feel that different.”
“Then nothing will happen.” A hint of sadness wreathed the words, perhaps explained by those that followed. “And then you can go home. Get back to your life.”
She would never be the same, even if the magic he spoke of came to nothing. Not after the way he’d kissed her. “I don’t live on another planet, Alec.”
He shrugged and turned back to the path. “I do. A planet where angry shapeshifters kick my doors off their hinges and people need kidnapping and saving and killing. There’s always something.”
In other words, there was no room for her. Unsurprising—and understandable.
And it didn’t matter anyway. It might have been one unforgettable kiss, but his busy, dangerous existence was far from the only reason getting involved with him would be a bad idea. He was inextricably tangled up in the fringes of a world she’d avoided her whole life.
Bad, bad idea.
Carmen caught up with him and slid her hand back into his. “There’s always something—later. Right now, I want that beer.”
She had a day, two at the most, and she wouldn’t waste them.
Jackson had called him five times.
The text on his cell phone’s screen indicated he had four new voicemails, and he’d bet all of them had come from his partner as well. With Carmen happily occupied putting away the groceries he’d had delivered, Alec felt safe enough stepping out on the back porch. Easier than staying in the kitchen with her smiles and her scent and her friendly chatter twisting him up into a confused wreck.
Fucking women was safe. Liking their company was asking for trouble.
He didn’t bother to listen to any of the messages, opting instead to call Jackson back. There was no way the man didn’t plan to yell at him, and he only had patience for one tedious lecture.
Jackson answered the phone with a short, particularly foul curse. “Okay, where the hell have you been?”
“Running.” Mostly the truth, and Jackson wouldn’t be able to tell either way. “She needed to burn off some energy.”
“Her brother’s been here, bitching because he showed up the other morning to quite the domestic-looking little scene.”
The kid should be thanking any God he prayed to that it’d been domestic and not pornographic. “We’re getting along decent enough. Nothing crazy’s happened.”
“Yeah, I told him you’d take care of her. No funny business.”
“That a statement or a question?”
After a moment of uneasy silence, Jackson cleared his throat. “Is there something I need to know?”
Damn it. His own defensiveness had turned a statement into a question. “If she was stuck here for a few more days, maybe. But if I can’t walk her through a change tonight, then I’m sending her back home. Franklin’s practically shacking up with her roommate. He’ll be on hand if anything happens, but I’m starting to think it won’t.”
“The longer it takes, the less likely it is to happen,” his partner admitted. “Julio says there’s no news on the whys-and-wherefores front. You gonna shuffle her off on Franklin and help him out? He tries, but come on. The kid’s a firefighter. He doesn’t think like a cop.”
Long association with Jackson made it easy to follow the path of his thoughts. A cop might have found Alec’s lack of subterfuge reassuring…..but Julio Mendoza wasn’t human. And Jackson didn’t think like a shifter. “Wolves aren’t so great at hiding that sort of thing. Especially if someone’s charging into our territory and questioning our right to have someone. The only way I’m going to convince Mendoza that I’m not the latest big bad wolf come to gobble his sister up is to get her the hell out of my house.”
“Then you’re right, you need to do just that. We can’t get down to real business with you stuck babysitting.”
“Yeah.” He was right. Getting Carmen away from him was the only thing that would give him the focus to find out what had happened to her.
Too bad it was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Still, couldn’t hurt to stay in touch after she goes home. Make sure everything’s all right. You can handle that, right?” Jackson’s voice sounded studiously casual.
Meddling bastard. “Since when do you encourage me to stick my nose in other people’s business?”
He could almost hear Jackson’s shrug. “You’ve taken responsibility for her so far. May as well see it through.”
“I take responsibility for everyone. And I always see it through. So butt the hell—”
Magic exploded.
The phone slipped from Alec’s fingers as he staggered under the wave of sheer, undiluted power. It was so overwhelming that he couldn’t even pinpoint a source, not until Carmen’s voice rose in a scream of protest from the front yard.
He faintly heard Jackson’s frantic voice spilling out of the speaker on his phone, but instinct moved his feet before he could stop to think. One hand landed on the railing of his porch and he vaulted it, four feet up and then ten down, enough that he gave into momentum and rolled before springing to his feet again.
Then he ran.
It was the witch. She stood in the yard, chanting, as one of the men from the house in Algiers lifted Carmen off her feet.
The rhythmic chanting paused as the witch turned her head. “Drop the girl. Deal with the shifter.”
Carmen hit the driveway, and the burly man rushed him.
In the second before the huge body crashed into his, Alec caught the scent of blood in the air, distracting enough that he hit the ground, the muscle-bound shifter on top of him.
The man drew back a fist and drove it into Alec’s jaw. Pain splintered the world into overlapping fragments, but at least it drew his attention back to the fight. Alec shook off the blow and used a move he’d seen Zola pull more than once to get a larger opponent off of her. A feint to the left, as if trying to throw the man off him, then a lightning-fast change in direction the second the bulky man started to pull right.
They rolled together and Alec got a knee in the shifter’s gut and smashed his fist into his face. Bone shattered and a hoarse yelp of pain split the air, but it wasn’t loud enough to cover Carmen’s agonized moan as magic lashed through the still evening.
The man cursed over the sound of metal clearing a leather holster. Nickel plating glinted in the fading evening light as he lifted a pistol to Alec’s head.
No time to be flashy. Alec swung a fist and knocked the hand and gun to the side, then smacked it again, sending the weapon flying.
A meaty hand slammed into his face, a strong thumb digging hard into one eye. Alec choked on a curse and reared back, barely keeping the man from gouging out his eye, but he couldn’t escape the painful pressure. The shifter huffed out a short, triumphant laugh, only to draw up short as a gunshot rang out.
The man let go to press his hand to a rapidly welling spot of blood on his shoulder. Alec rolled him, taking advantage of his opponent’s pain and distraction to wrench his head and snap his neck. The man went limp, and Alec came to his knees in time to see Carmen, the shifter’s gun held easily in both hands.
In that moment, she was the hottest thing he’d ever seen.
“Alec.” Carmen’s hand shook, and her relieved expression turned to one of horror as her arm moved, jerkily at first and then more smoothly. Her fingers twitched as if she wanted to drop the gun but couldn’t, and she raised her hand, lifting the barrel to her temple.
Alec froze, both hands held out at his side. He didn’t dare move, not even to turn his head and face the witch head on. “What do you want?”
“To finish my job.” The witch’s voice held a gentle, almost cajoling edge. “Ten minutes, and everything will be done.”
“Everything what? What are you trying to do?”
The woman snorted, and the beads in her hair clicked as she shook her head. “If you don’t understand, you shouldn’t interfere.”
His wolf battered against his self-control, frantic to break free and eliminate the threat. Alec choked it back hard. “No one’s interfering.”
“I am,” Carmen said angrily. Her trembling ceased as she rose and took a step back. “I’m saying no. No more magic, no more spells. I’d rather pull the trigger.”
His heart damn near stopped in his chest. “Carmen—”
The witch spoke over him, her dark eyes narrowing in her pale face. “You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?”
For an eternity, the two women stared at each other. Finally, the older woman whispered something and magic snapped through the air. The gun flew out of Carmen’s hand, and the witch turned to Alec, one hand raised as she whispered an incantation.