‘Easier?’
The gnome waved at the three big cats. ‘The boys here have a little problem they need your help with, Ms Taylor.’
‘Gen,’ Finn’s voice was barely audible. ‘Run.’
The gnome’s beady eyes flicked warily at Finn. Stupid satyr with a hero complex. It was going to get him killed one day. I clenched my fist and released Ascalon. The blessed and be-spelled sword sprang into my grip and I shifted into a ready stance. ‘Fine,’ I said, ‘let’s chat.’
A strangled surprised noise came from beside me. ‘You’ve got a sword?’
Oh yeah. Finn didn’t know about Ascalon. Amazing what you miss when you disappear for three months. ‘Yep.’
‘You know how to use it?’
‘Yep,’ I said, baring my teeth at the gnome and his boys.
‘Good.’ Finn’s voice was a satisfied growl.
The gnome reacted, but not by backing off as I expected. He shook his head as if me producing Ascalon was somehow disappointing. Then the horrid little male, who was obviously far stronger than he looked, grabbed the embarrassed-looking cat by the scruff and threw him at me. The big cat yelped, all four paws stuck out as he flew at me with a horrified expression on his feline face. Reluctant to kill him with Ascalon when he wasn’t so much attacking as being sacrificed, I leaped to the side, only just missing skewering him. He landed on his paws less than a foot from me and for a second we froze, staring into each other’s eyes. Then shock ripped through me as a burning sensation engulfed my hand, the cat’s eyes lit with reflected green fire, and Ascalon vanished back into its ring.
‘He’s an innocent, Ms Taylor!’ the gnome called. ‘Your sword won’t work when there’s an innocent around.’
Fuck. I scrambled back from the big cat who was still frozen.
‘Gen!’
Finn’s warning shout jerked my head up in time to see the nasty gnome rubbing his hands together, then tossing them in our direction. A dozen cotton wool balls flew towards us, buzzing like angry bees. Security Stingers ~ the Ultimate Intruder Deterrent. Crap. If the spells got us we’d be asleep and helpless in seconds. Luckily once the stingers launched, they didn’t deviate too far from the original target area—
‘Split!’ Finn pushed me away, obviously having the same idea.
I turned and sprinted along the cinder path that led to help. A couple of stingers buzzed my head, their sticky threads trailing my face like grasping cobwebs. I stumbled, nearly went down, then cracked the threads, feeling the magic slice my forehead as the spells disintegrated. Blood dripped in my eyes as I ran faster—
Something thudded into my back, smacking me to the ground. Pain shot through my head as it bounced off the cinders. More pain burned down my back as claws punctured my skin and the hot heavy weight of a big cat pinned me. I yanked my magic up, flung it at the animal. If I could catch him in my Glamour, he would have to obey me.
A fat mud-covered hand clamped a silver bangle studded with jade and citrines round my left wrist: a police-issue manacle. My magic cut out as if it had been ripped from me. I screamed as someone shouted, ‘Get off her!’ And the Stun spells in the jade chips ignited.
My body convulsed as if I’d been zapped with high-voltage electricity.
‘Hurry up and change, boys, and get them in the cart,’ the gnome’s voice ordered. ‘We need to get moving before the beasts take an interest.’
‘Both of them?’ The man’s question was a low growl. ‘Going to slow us down.’
‘The Forum Mirabilis is in town. The satyr will bring a nice price at the auction. Those horns alone are worth a good few thousand each, and he’s a sex fae; I can get a king’s ransom for his—’
Unconsciousness took me.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Insistent fingers prised my lips open where I lay on my back, groggy from being yanked from unconsciousness. A small piece of meat, raw and still warm, landed on my tongue. Gamey-tasting blood infused with a strange, wild magic trickled down my throat. A hand clamped my mouth shut, pinched my nose, forcing me to swallow. I resisted, struggling, determined not to give in this time, concentrating on the firelight seeping beneath the tape closing my eyelids. My lungs began to burn. Despair and fury flooded me as, same as the last however many times, the instinctive need for air and the lure of the blood made me swallow before desperately gasping for oxygen like a landed fish. The meat slid into my stomach to join the rest where it congealed into a heavy solid lump, the magic in it seeming to snuff out.
Where was Finn?
Was he okay?
I sent out my senses, searching for him. Nothing other than the two humans; the gnome’s boys, cats, or whatever the fuck they were. Only there’d been three of them. Where was the third? And the gnome? Where had they taken Finn?
Gods, I prayed he was still alive. The memory of the gnome’s comment about the money he could make for a satyr at auction was like a fist squeezing my heart. Tears of rage and anguish pricked my eyes as I damned myself for not running when Finn had first told me. Then maybe they wouldn’t have caught both of us and I could’ve brought help.
Something sharp pricked my arm . . .
Only unlike the other times, I didn’t float back into sleep but hovered on the cusp, pulse pounding erratically as I realised I was frozen inside my own body. Terrified they’d up the dose of whatever, I fought the panic using my childhood trick: one elephant, two elephants . . . I needed to know what was going on if I was going to get out of this . . . five elephants . . . Find Finn . . . seven . . . nine . . . my pulse slowed as calm spread through me.
‘She’s under,’ a male said, sounding tired.
‘You sure, son?’ It was the same growling male who’d said taking both Finn and me was going to slow the cart down.
The tape was peeled carefully from my eyes. I could feel it happening, but the sensation was odd, no pain even when I felt the tape snag a couple of lashes. Anaesthetic? Only the human sort didn’t work with my sidhe metabolism . . . unless they were using the stuff meant for animals. Enough of that even worked on vamps. Crap. Someone lifted my eyelids. I got a snapshot of a vaguely familiar pale face and dark hair before a penlight blinded me . . .
‘Pupils not reacting so she’s under.’
. . . He was one of the two males I’d seen hanging round the gnome’s . . .
A couple of buttons on my shirt were popped, sparking unease even as I realised I was still dressed. Something cold touched my chest. ‘Heartbeat’s stable too.’
. . . Shit. Of course he was familiar. He was Katie’s treacherous boyfriend. Marc. Damn. Not only was he two-timing her with some redhead, now he was prodding my breast . . .
‘The bite’s healing up,’ Marc said. ‘Same as the cuts on her face and her back where you clawed her.’ Accusation threaded the words. ‘Don’t think it’s going to fester.’
‘How she get bit by some human anyway?’ Growling Male said.
‘Don’t know,’ Marc answered quietly, and relief filled me as my shirt buttons were closed. ‘But I don’t think it’s interfering.’
Interfering? With what? Footsteps sounded as the two males moved.
‘Bloody hell,’ Growling Male said, his voice coming from further away now. ‘Yous thought this time it was gonna work for sure. Why ain’t she shifting yet?’
‘Who knows?’ Marc snapped. ‘Maybe the stuff the gnome gave you for the circle is wrong. Maybe there’s something missing from the ritual. Maybe whoever he got to hack the witch archives copied the wrong ritual. Maybe she can’t shift because she’s already too magical. I told you we shouldn’t trust him.’
Shifting? Ritual? Witch archives . . .
‘Told you, son, more magical the better, so long as they ain’t one of them fae who already shift to somethin’ else, like a tree. That’s what the notes reckoned was wrong with those girls that chink weretiger tried the ritual on.’