I leaned in and pressed my mouth to his. “Be safe,” I said quietly.
“There’s no chance of that.” A humorless smile twisted his lips. “Making amends to the Alpha comes with blood and pain, baby girl. But I’ll survive it.”
My gut twisted as I leaned back, staring at him. “What?”
Damon just shook his head. “Will you wait for me?”
“You know I can’t.”
A hooded look came across his face and he tangled his hand in my hair. “Then I guess I’ll just have to move up my timetable,” he muttered, tugging my head back. I groaned as he pressed a hot kiss to my neck. “You stay safe. And don’t go out alone.”
Our first stop was the bait store where Damon had bought me the bows.
It was a bust.
As in completely.
“It’s closed up,” I said quietly, staring at the vacant place.
There wasn’t even any merchandise in the store.
No sign in the window or anything.
“You were just here, right?” Kori said, a frown on her weathered face. The mother had insisted I take the other witch. She’d promised protection and Kori was one of her strongest hands.
So Kori had my back for the gamut of this, it seemed.
I had to admit, I was pretty okay with it.
“Yeah.” We circled the building, but it was an exercise in futility. There was nothing. No cars. No notes about what had happened. Nothing. “He knew something, that son-of-a-bitch. And when we got the kids out last night, he had a warning, somehow, and cleared out.”
“Damon said there were cameras. Maybe this dude was one of the ones in on it,” Kori offered. She glanced down the road and then circled back around, motioning for me to follow.
I sighed and did, rubbing my itching palm while I did so. “There’s nothing here to see, Kori. Can we head on to the park? It’s a day long thing—several days—just on its own.”
“In a minute, in a minute.” She crouched on the back step, studying it. “Hmm. Perfect.” Dragging a finger through the dirt, she whispered under her breath.
I shivered as I felt the magic dance in the air.
I couldn’t define it, couldn’t understand. But I could damn well feel the magic and hers was strong.
“Ah, yes…there we go. Dude was scared when he packed out. Big time scared. Running for his life kind of scared.”
Staring at her bowed head, I asked, “How can you tell?”
“It’s in the earth. Earth has lots of secrets and she whispers it to those who can hear.” With a sly little smile on her face, she shrugged. “Like me.”
She muttered a little more under her breath and I felt the rise and fall of her magic. Finally, she sighed. “There’s more to follow but I can’t do that and help you. Let me call Es and she can decide what to do. We can do that on the road, though.”
“Can you call another weapon besides the sword?”
I closed my eyes.
I really didn’t want to waste my breath talking to Kori. Kori, however, liked talking. A lot.
Swiping the sweat out of my eyes with my forearm, I stared at the back of her rainbow-hued head. She was red and orange today. Like a damn phoenix. “What?”
“The sword. I saw what you did the other night. And the sword is amazing—I tried to touch it, you know—”
I stopped in my tracks, glaring. “You what?”
“Heh.” She turned around, a cheeky grin on her face. “Guess that’s off-limits. Same as your sexy cat? Don’t worry, I only like the male species as a once-in-a-while thing. The sword is way cooler than the cat anyway.”
Mine. Both of them. Possessiveness prickled inside me as I stared at her. “When did you mess with my blade?”
“Oh, I didn’t. I tried.” She shrugged. “I saw it on the floor while Damon was pumping the water out of you and I was just going to put it up out of the way. But when I went to touch it, it was like it…” She paused and rubbed her hands. “It doesn’t want me.”
“She hates anybody but me touching her.”
Kori nodded. “Yes. I felt that. Her, huh?”
I just stared at her.
She grinned back at me. “So, can you call anything else?”
“No.”
Black brows arched over her eyes and she cocked her head, studying me. “Ever tried?”
I jerked a shoulder. “She’s the only one I feel that connection to.”
“Hmmm.” She shrugged and turned back around. “Might be useful to try and learn it. The sword is a cool bitch, but sometimes, you need a