Uh. Okay then. Breathing fast, I activated my cloaking spell, the familiar whispered words so ingrained in my memory that I could have cast it in my sleep.
The heavy cloak descended over me, the suffocating feeling so recognizable that it felt normal to be so weighted down.
Once it was back in place, the tension rolling through the Fire Wolf’s shoulders eased, the balls of muscles loosening. He then swung around to face me, his eyes like burning embers and so accusatory that I drew back.
“Why do you hide yourself?”
“I . . . uh . . .” Words left me. The man looked dangerous. And sexy as hell.
He prowled closer, the agitated energy off him rising. My stomach flipped, and I had the urge to scramble back on the bed, but then a moment of excitement danced through me at the thought of whether or not he would chase me.
And what the fuck was that all about? That was not where my concern should be.
Instead, it should be on finding my sister, not trying to make sense of why he cared if I hid my magic. ’Cause seriously, what did that have to do with anything?
He stopped a foot from the bed and planted his hands on his hips. The shirt he wore gripped his body like a glove, outlining every hard ridge and plane. Not that I’d noticed.
He scowled. “You’re powerful, yet you pretend to be weak. Why?”
My mother’s words came back to me, as though a ghostly whisper reached me on the breeze. Never, never tell anyone. You must keep it a secret, Tala, no matter the cost. Revealing it could summon the Bone Eaters, so you must never tell anyone.
“Well . . .” The truth was that I hid my magic because I had to hide my forbidden power. And since hiding all of my magic and power was easier than hiding some of it, I’d decided from an early age to keep it all locked away. Only a select few knew of my full witch powers, and only Tessa knew of my forbidden power. But I wasn’t going to reveal all of that to the hunter, so I settled on giving the partial truth, hoping he wouldn’t detect my deceit. “I don’t like the attention, and I don’t want it. My kind of magic is rare and could make me a target. I don’t need that.”
Thankfully, the Fire Wolf seemed perplexed enough by what I’d declared that he apparently didn’t scent my half-truth, which meant he still had no idea about my forbidden power.
His scowl deepened. “What are you capable of?”
I shrugged. “I can fight.”
“As I’ve seen. And?”
“And I can practice every branch of witch magic. There, are you happy? Now you know.” I held my breath, hoping that revelation would keep him from detecting what I was truly hiding.
“Every branch?” When I nodded, he added, “I don’t know any witch that can practice every branch. Which area are you strongest in?”
“I’m strong in all of them fairly equally.”
“How is that possible?”
“You’re seriously asking me how that’s possible? You’re a werewolf who can set himself on fire and also weave sorcerer magic. How are you possible?”
He growled. “I’m not the topic of this conversation.”
“No, but you should be. I’m just as intrigued by you as you are by me.”
He looked away, his brows drawing together so sharply that a deep groove appeared between his eyes. And in that moment, I realized I was intrigued by him. My interest in him was more than just physical attraction, because the Fire Wolf was not only a unique supernatural, he was also a mystery.
The entire underbelly of society was afraid of him. I’d been afraid of him when he’d threatened to dismember me in the Shadow Zone. And while I still believed that he might cut my hand off—maybe—if I pushed him, I no longer thought he’d be entirely unaffected by it.
Because how much of that ruthless image that he portrayed was an act?
A memory of him protecting the homeless kid in the alleyway flashed across my mind. Then the secret arrangement he’d made with Miranda, that female vamp. The truth was, in his spare time, the Fire Wolf helped homeless kids in the Portland area, yet he didn’t want anyone to know that, which I understood. Helping others didn’t exactly fit the cold and dangerous hunter image the entire community believed of him.
And if anyone understood hiding one’s true nature from the society we lived in, it was me.
The Fire Wolf took a breath, then shot a hand through his dark hair again. The strands on the top of his head curled slightly at the ends, entirely mussed from his constant need to attack it. I wondered if those strands were as soft as they looked.
“We should move. It’s been eighteen hours since your sister was taken.” He abruptly stalked away from the bed to the corner of the room and slipped behind his curtain.
That reminder of my sister jolted me back to reality.
The Fire Wolf was right. He needed to scry, and we needed to go. And all this other stuff—this intimate revelation of our true natures and his weird reaction to me when I’d released my cloaking spell—none of that mattered.
All that mattered was finding Tessa.
Chapter 15
While the Fire Wolf was scrying, I scrambled off the bed to the kitchen and snatched my clothes.
In the bathroom, I dressed and cleaned my teeth as best I could without a toothbrush. At least the dude had mouthwash.
Once my hair was brushed and I was satisfied that I looked halfway decent, I returned to the couch. Now, with any luck, the Fire Wolf would lock onto Tessa’s location in the next few minutes, and then we’d be off.
I pulled out my phone to wire him the next installment of money, ’cause even though we didn’t have a signed deal about the job I’d hired him for, I didn’t think he’d actually leave me high and dry. And we didn’t have time now anyway to have a contract drawn up or to visit the fae lands for a fairy to seal a bargain.
Nope. I’d just have to trust him.
Several texts and missed calls filled my phone’s screen when I unlocked it. Prish had tried to reach me half a dozen times. Crap, she was probably worried sick.
I placed a call to her, and she answered immediately, her cultured tone sounding annoyed. “It’s about time. Where are you?”
“Still with the scourge of society.”
“He hasn’t killed you yet?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
She sighed. “Well, I’m glad you’re not dead. I was worried about you. What about Tess? Any luck finding her?”
“Not yet.” I filled her in as quickly as I could, telling her about the asylum and how this didn’t appear to be a random kidnapping.
She was quiet for a moment before saying, “They took her to an insane asylum? And the European mafia could be behind this?”
That icy cold feeling filled my stomach again. “Perhaps. Honestly, we don’t know much right now, but I do know that this is much worse than I’d thought.”
“No shit. But if it was the mafia, why would they want Tess?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“But you can still feel her, right? Your bond is still intact?”
I loosed a breath. “Thankfully, yes. It’s the only thing keeping me sane.”
We talked for a few more minutes, and before we hung up, I promised to keep her updated as much as I could. I then focused on getting the Fire Wolf’s next payment complete before I lost my nerve or got distracted by the other texts waiting for me.