Natural Dual-Mage (Page 34)

“Well, now, he is…robust,” my mother said. I could practically hear the drool running out of her mouth.

“Mother!” I said through my teeth.

“What? I’m just appreciating the view. I’m old, not dead.”

Oh my heavens, she was so embarrassing.

Roger stepped down from the porch and stalked toward us, his large arms swinging and his power slapping me in the face.

Emery turned around with fire in his eyes, his whole body flexing, reacting to feeling potent shifter magic for the first time. Roger saw it immediately and slowed, his muscles tightening under his snug clothing.

“Oh my,” my mother said, and I nearly died.

“Whoa, whoa.” Reagan stepped between them and put her hands out. “Hey, whoa.”

“That is just normal shifter magic,” I said to Emery. “He’s a very powerful shifter. This is normal.”

“They became a dual-mage pair last night,” Reagan said to Roger. “Emery picked up a few new tricks that he clearly wasn’t expecting.” She dropped her hands and grinned. “Look at me, stopping a fight instead of starting one. Ha! It’s like I’m growing up.”

“Better you than me,” Callie said, opening her satchel as she walked forward. “Let’s get this show on the road. If I’m going to have people staring at me, I’d rather it be people and not animals hiding in the bushes.”

“Sorry, bro.” Emery stepped around Reagan and put out his hand. “Penny’s magic is throwing me for a loop.”

“No sweat.” Roger’s grip turned his knuckles white, and Emery’s muscles started dancing too.

There was no way I was going to say what I was thinking and sound like my mother…

“Where do you want to start?” Roger asked, looking us over.

“The ward,” Callie said. “Lead us to the trouble spots.”

“I’ll take the house.” My mother stalked forward like she owned the place. “I want to get a feel for—”

Roger gracefully stepped in her way, and a shock of power burst from his frame. Emery tensed and turned away, shaking his head. Apparently he could handle the dance of Alpha…until he was blasted in the face with it. He clearly wanted to retaliate.

Unfortunately, as a longtime matriarch and all around badass, so did my mother. “Penny, get my shotgun.”

“Oh my God, Mother! This is his house. You can’t just go wandering through. Clearly.”

“They called us in to help,” Callie said, strapping on her bulldog face and joining my mother’s side. “Now we’re here, and they keep us out?”

“They didn’t call you. They called us.” I didn’t know whether to step in their path, or just run and let the shifters handle it. “You tagged along.”

“Penny—” my mother started.

“I know, I know.” I was unable to help sulking a little. “Don’t sass.”

“I’m not in the habit of letting non-pack affiliates in the house unattended,” Roger said. “You are”—his eyes didn’t flick around her person, but beat into her head like a dual-colored hammer—“the Seer, is that right? Penny Bristol’s mother?”

She met his gaze without so much as sweating. I doubted many others could boast the same accomplishment. “That’s right. And right now, I’ve been of very little use. I need more input. I need to be exposed to more magical influences. Which means I need access to your house. To your organization, or lack thereof.”

He didn’t flinch or even frown with the dig. Very self-assured, this shifter. “Of course.” He glanced right, and a wolf went trotting away. “If you’ll just wait here a moment, I’ll have someone escort you around.”

My mother shifted and her chin rose slightly. “If you’re worried about me telling the vampires how you run things, there’s no need. As far as they’re concerned, I’m in the same boat you are.”

He stared at her for a silent beat. She took the stare and gave it right back.

Finally he nodded. “Noted.”

A few people came out of the house, two of them a couple of years younger than me and a guy about Roger’s age, early thirties and with a resting dick-face that had me scooting backward into Emery. He was taller and leaner than Roger, but with the same grace and ease of movement. His hard brown eyes swept over everyone quickly before darting back to Emery, then Reagan, and then sticking on me. Wariness crossed his features, and I got the distinct impression that I made him uncomfortable. He’d clearly heard what I had done to Rex. As he got closer, I noticed a thin white scar running down the side of his face like a river, from his sharp cheekbone to his neck.

“Alder is the beta of the North American pack,” Roger said, not shifting to the side as the scarred man came up behind him. “My second-in-command. He’ll take you around the house, Miss…?”

My mother swayed in a disturbingly girlish manner. “Bristol. You can call me Karen.”

Roger nodded sharply. “Karen.” Finally, he stepped to the side with a tiny tilt of his head, a shallow representation of a vampire’s bow. “Please don’t give Alder a hard time, Karen.”

She giggled—giggled!—before allowing Alder to lead her away without so much as a pistol.

Roger squared off again, blasting out another force of power, and I wondered if this was the shifter equivalent of elders shooting power at newbie vampires to make them cower. The younger guys behind him certainly seemed to feel it. One of them, a striking guy with dark brown hair, a square jaw, and a fetching cleft in his chin, turned a little brittle. The other, a shorter guy with a messy mop of light brown hair and a small hole in the shoulder seam of his T-shirt, took a step back and hunched.

Emery blew out a breath, now looking down at his feet with his hands in his pockets, his whole body tense. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“You can always blast him with power to get even,” Reagan said with a grin and a manic light in her eyes. I knew that look.

“Don’t do that.” I patted Emery. “Whatever you do, don’t do that.”

“I wasn’t expecting so many mages,” Roger said conversationally, and his accusation rang loud and clear.

“Honestly, they followed us,” I said, pointing at the Bankses. I wasn’t going down with this ship.

Callie leaned toward me and, in a low tone, said, “Snitches get stitches, Penny.”

“We thought we might lend a little experience,” Dizzy said with a smile, opening his satchel. “Maybe even a little…levelheadedness. Things can be turbulent for a couple in the months after a dual-mage pairing. And as you’ve heard, Emery and Penny just paired last night. I’m sure you’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Reagan started forward, flashing the two younger shifters a fiery gaze. “Who are your…associates?”

She’d wanted to say “underlings” to rile them up. I’d heard her do it before. That she’d refrained now meant she was on her best behavior.

Roger stared at her for a moment, probably sharing my thought wave. Unlike my mother, Reagan didn’t just stare right back. She winked, grinned, and then flared her mighty magic. Only hers was a wave of beautiful complexity that I wanted to bask in before unraveling one subtle piece at a time.

Emery blinked at Reagan before shifting his haunted gaze toward me. “How do you stand this?”

“That”—I pointed at Reagan—“is new. The strength of that”—I made a circle with my finger around the shifters—“is newish, and I haven’t been coping all that well, actually. As you might’ve noticed from the meeting in Derry.”

Roger waited until our exchange was finished (he didn’t seem like a man who missed much) before half turning toward the two guys who stood behind him. “This is Devon, a sub-alpha residing in Northern California. He has great leadership abilities and is assigned to escorting—”

“Monitoring,” Reagan interjected. In response to Roger’s hard stare, she shrugged with a smile. “We’re all friends here—why mince words?”

Roger’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t react. “He’ll be escorting you around today, taking over should I be called elsewhere.”

“What’s a sub-alpha?” I asked Emery quietly.

“Roger overseas all the packs in this very large territory,” Reagan said. “The overall pack is divided into smaller packs, each with a different overall status level depending on the kickassitude of the pack members. Each of those packs has an Alpha. If there are subgroups under that, each of those packs has an Alpha—”

“Reagan, honey, unless you have a pie chart handy, let’s get moving,” Callie said. “You’re not doing anyone any favors.”

“A pie chart?” Dizzy muttered as Roger started walking, his jaw clenched again.

“Reagan likes flirting with death,” Emery said in an undertone as we followed Roger.

“This is honestly the first time you noticed? She bonded an elder vampire, for criminy’s sake.”

As a group, we headed directly for the tree line at the side of the driveway. I wondered where the mages that worked for Roger were. I’d thought we were supposed to chat with one of them while checking out their setup.