That Old Black Magic - By Michelle Rowen Page 0,58
to come into focus. “You . . . have you taken me to the Malleus?”
“No, of course not,” Ben said. “This doesn’t have anything to do with them. They don’t need to know about this. It’s safer that way.”
Safer. Sure, now he gets cautious when it comes to those jerks. Maybe he’d learned a few things in the last little while.
Wait a minute.
She tried to push herself up and looked around the small enclosed space. “Where am I?”
“In a van I rented,” Ben said.
“A van. So you . . .” She felt her shoulder where the injection went in. “You drugged me and threw me in the back of a van?”
Her mother’s currently young and beautiful face loomed in front of her. “Seemed like a good gathering spot on short notice.”
“And what is this? Your intervention?”
Ben cleared his throat. “Yup. Kind of amateur, I’ll admit it, but it worked well enough.”
Unbelievable. How many times did she have to say she didn’t need anyone’s help before they’d leave her the hell alone?
“I don’t have time for this.” She glared at them. “You have no right to approach me ever again, you hear me? I swear to God, if you do then you’re both going to be sorry. I don’t want your help or your stupid intervention.”
“It had to be done,” Ben said. “You’ll see that eventually. Maybe not today, but soon. And you’ll thank us for this.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “You know, I once thought you were a really nice guy, Ben. Someone who wanted to do the right thing, even at a cost. I heard you’d left the police force.”
“Couldn’t balance things as well as I thought. Had to choose.”
“I guess that brand on your arm made that choice nice and simple for you.”
“I know you think the Malleus are evil, but they’re not. Not all of them, anyway.” His jaw clenched as if he didn’t entirely believe his own words.
“Let me out of here. Now.”
They exchanged a look. Great, Ben and Caroline had forged a bond of some kind. United to save Eden from the big bad demon. How did they even meet?
She felt magic spark in the palms of her hands, ready, willing, and able to be used whenever she liked. “You have three seconds to get out of my way. Three, two, one.”
When they didn’t do anything, she cast a focused look at the back doors of the van and they swung wide open. She scooted toward the exit before she noticed something that made her gasp out loud and her heart start pounding hard in her chest.
“Why is it dark out?” She didn’t get an immediate reply so she turned to look at them. “What time is it? How long was I out?”
Caroline pressed her lips together and glanced away.
Ben held Eden’s gaze steadily. “It’s six o’clock. You were out for a little over an hour.”
Eden began to tremble. “No . . . but—but I need to—”
She leapt out of the van and scanned the parking lot. They hadn’t gone anywhere. They were still here, next to her Toyota. Next to Triple-A. She ran so fast she nearly twisted her ankle. The door was locked and she yanked on the handle so hard it hurt her hands.
Fumbling in her pockets for the spell, she realized with a horrible sinking feeling that it wasn’t there anymore. Suddenly, Caroline was next to her, the paper clutched in her hand.
“We had to do it to save you, Eden,” she said, her voice shaky. “It’s going to be better now. You’ll see.”
Tears blurred her vision, and she snatched the paper away, quickly speaking the Latin words to break the spell that had sealed the office up. There was a slight swell of light to show it worked.
She grasped the door handle and pulled, bursting into the office. “Please, please still be here.”
A large doglike creature scrambled toward her, and she reacted instinctively, balling her hand, ready to unleash magic to protect herself if the werewolf attacked. Instead, it sat down on its haunches in front of her and whined, raising its front leg to paw at the air.
“Andy . . . what happened? Where’s Darrak?” She turned in a circle. “Darrak! Where are you?”
Andy tilted his muzzle back and howled mournfully.
And then she just knew.
Darrak wasn’t here. He’d been trapped inside the office by the spell. He couldn’t possess Andy since he was a shifter. Darrak had nowhere to go when he lost solid form.