Natural Dual-Mage (Page 41)

Penny nodded, staring straight out the window. Her magic rolled through the cab, hot and intense. “Until now.”

“Fuckin’-A,” the guy on the left side said.

They turned off the freeway as the sun lowered in the sky. They still had a couple hours before it would be dark enough for the vampires to go outside. He really hoped Ms. Bristol had gotten the time frame right.

“I hope my mother wasn’t wrong,” Penny said, echoing his thoughts.

“She’s not wrong,” the guy in the middle said. “I was there when she told the beta’s fortune. She started getting into his personal life, and I thought he was going to smack her across the room to shut her up.”

“That would not have been bright,” Penny murmured.

Two of the guys in the back huffed out laughter. “Don’t suppose it would’ve been, no,” the one on the right said. “I was there, too, for most of it. I could feel the magic. She wasn’t making it up. The way her voice and body and everything changed? No way. I saw Vlad’s face in the crystal ball. It couldn’t have been a picture or video, because vampires don’t show up in video. That was legit.”

“Yeah, that was whack, yo,” the guy in the middle said with a toothy grin. “I didn’t think crystal balls were real. Ain’t never seen one. I’ll never forget it.”

“Everyone loves a fortune teller,” Penny grumbled.

“Except for the frauds who try to get by on their looks and colorful rocks,” Emery teased, earning a dark look.

They turned off the main road and onto a smaller one. He passed a bright pink sign and slammed on the brakes. Furry bodies slammed into the front of the truck bed.

“My bad,” he said, catching another sign up the way. Instead of reversing, he pulled ahead to that one, realizing he was making the train of vehicles behind him stop as well.

“What’s the matter?” Penny asked, magic rolling and boiling through the cab.

He pointed at the marked-up “garage sale” sign, studying the added red words and low slashes, hard to see on the pink paper. “I saw something like this outside the Bankses’ house before the mages attacked. I never did get to piece together the code. The mages have been communicating with each other right under our noses.”

“That’s…a weird code,” one of the women in the back said, leaning toward the window. “It looks more like punctuation than characters, doesn’t it?”

Roger stepped out of the SUV behind them, still completely naked, and a driver coming the other way slammed on her brakes. A woman in her twenties gawked out the window with stars in her eyes and a crooked smile. Roger didn’t seem to notice.

“You’ve stopped because of the sign?” Penny asked. “That sign? The pink one?”

“What’s the problem?” Roger asked at the window.

“We’ve got some sort of—”

“That’s not code.” Penny waved Emery on. “Don’t be silly. That’s just Veronica letting off steam. Go. Reagan will get there before us.”

“But it’s all marked up,” the guy in the back said.

“She corrects the grammar on signs and things around the neighborhood. She’s an editor.” Penny pounded on the dash. “Come on. Let’s go.”

A honk sounded somewhere down the line. Roger stepped away from the car and stared down in that direction for a beat, and Emery had no doubt his nudity wouldn’t detract from the sheer force of command he exuded. When no other honks came, he stepped back to the car.

“My God, he’s terrifying,” Penny mumbled, slouching in her seat.

“You’re sure about the sign?” Roger asked her.

“Yeah.” The woman from the back nodded and leaned back. “That fits.”

“Oh sh—” The guy she was sitting on jumped and shoved at her. “Woman, watch out where you put that bony butt. You’re going to break my dick in half.”

“Why is your dick hard in the first place?” she asked dryly.

“I’m straight, and I’ve got a naked woman sitting on me. You’re under the impression I can control what my body does in this situation. I’m not trying to find a hole, so count yourself lucky.”

“Ah, come on, man.” The guy in the middle tried to scoot away from the one on the end.

“Enough.” Roger’s whip-crack command silenced the cab. His eyes bored into Penny. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. Look”—Penny gestured at the window, accidentally flicking the glass with her fingers—“she put a command there, and added words to make that last bit a complete sentence. You guys, we’re wasting time!”

Roger stepped away from the truck and headed back to his SUV. Emery pulled away, not gunning it, since they’d have to turn up the driveway soon, anyway.

“Your friend corrects grammar on other people’s signs?” the guy in the middle asked.

“I’m glad someone said it,” the one on the end said. “That’s weird.”

“It’s not weird, it just ain’t right,” the one in the middle said. “She’s basically walking around, calling people dumb.”

“Well…if the shoe fits,” one of the women said.

The other guy huffed out a laugh. “Maybe the sign makers will learn something.”

“They ain’t gonna learn shit,” the guy in the middle said. “They probably won’t even take the signs down.”

“Well, I’ve learned something, and that’s all that matters,” the one on the end said.

“Yeah, you’ve learned that you can’t get laid even with a naked woman on your lap,” the unaffected naked woman said.

Everyone in the back busted up laughing, not at all tense or worried about the battle they were about to walk into. Their lack of fear indicated they were part of the select group of shifters Roger employed to keep magical people from outing themselves to humans in the Brink.

“There’s Reagan’s SUV,” Penny said quietly, having ignored the banter in the back seat. She hunched in her seat and pointed off to the side where the vehicle was parked in a little turnoff.

Emery pulled in and parked, then got out and motioned for Roger to do the same. There was space for a couple more cars, and then they’d have to take up the road. Not that it mattered. Darius’s residence was the only one up this way.

“What about the other locations for Darius’s people?” Penny asked as they met up with Reagan. The shifters in human form let out those in animal form.

“They’ve been loaded into coffins and are on their way in.” Reagan nodded a hello to Roger as he got out of his vehicle. “They’ll be told where to meet us. He had them staying about an hour outside of town in a couple of newly acquired residences. They haven’t heard a word from the Guild, and if it’s because the Guild is already on their way there, they’ll find empty houses to hide out in.”

Emery remembered the number of hearses Darius had used the last time he’d needed to move around during the day. It wouldn’t be enough for the numbers they needed. “Hearses?” he asked.

“No.” Reagan motioned them toward the road. “Semitrucks. He has racks inside the trailers for the coffins, and humans to load them up. Darius might not totally possess Vlad’s planning ability, but he’s not far off.”

“Well…I don’t know.” Penny slipped her hand into Emery’s and looked around anxiously. “Vlad had two houses out of three ambushed, and Darius only had one. I would say he wins this round. Especially since…Vlad might not be entirely trustworthy.”

“Vlad is not at all trustworthy, usually, but in this instance, it is probably only because of the distance,” Reagan said, watching the shifters unload. Callie and Dizzy plucked ingredients out of their satchels as they made their way up the road. Ms. Bristol followed behind, her gun over her shoulder and a backpack in her hands.

“That counts. Clearly distance was a good idea.” When Ms. Bristol neared, Penny asked, “What’s in the backpack, Mother? You don’t have bombs or anything, right?”

“Roger had one of his people gather up my tools,” Ms. Bristol replied. “Very kind of him. I didn’t mention that they weren’t my best set. And no.” She looked down at the backpack. “No bombs. Just a couple of grenades Roger had lying around, is all.”

A grin broke through Reagan’s face. “Great. Those will come in handy at the Mages’ Guild. Now, what’s our plan for ending the siege?”

“Since when do you use plans?” Penny asked.

Reagan nodded. “Good point. Let’s make it up as we go along.” She started walking.

“No, no. That’s not what I meant!” Penny took a step toward her, then paused, looking out to the side with that same anxious expression.

“What is it—” In a moment, he knew exactly what she sensed. The danger of it. It was a feeling he’d never forget.

28

“It’s him,” I said softly, trying to pierce the shadows between the trees with my gaze. My heart was a terrified rabbit in my chest. “It’s the druid. I feel him.”