Corrigan Fire Bloodfire - Helen Harper Page 0,38

over at her. It was on the tip of my tongue to agree to her demand and I only just managed to bite back the comment in time. The last thing I needed from Mackenzie Smith was allegations of sexual harassment. I felt a slight twinge of regret at the lost moment, however. Part of me would have enjoyed the expression on her face had I said what I was thinking. Let’s face it, she deserved it after everything she’d already put me through this evening.

With some effort, I focused back on the mage. ‘Is that it, Mr Floride? Is there a trail?’

‘No trail,’ he answered.

I was unsurprised. At least we now had a clear vision of who our perpetrator was though. The hippy wizard had come through after all. ‘Then we’re done. The money will be transferred to your account within the hour,’ I told him. ‘Can you take care of this?’ I needed to get back to the keep and make my preparations to return to London as fast as possible. Given his exorbitant prices, the least he could do was destroy all evidence of the beast’s corpse before it began to smell.

I shifted back to werepanther in order to make use of my shift’s natural speed, and leapt away. Just before the trees swallowed me up, however, I craned my neck round in the direction of the beach. It wasn’t a conscious movement – more as a result of the sensation of Mack’s eyes burning into my back. When my gaze met hers, she simply stared right at me, unafraid and unbowed. She’d patently put her temporary façade of submission behind her, then. I decided to give up concerning myself with her. Enough was enough – and I had far more important things to do.

Chapter Twelve

We hotfooted it back to the keep. It was clear that whatever was going on in Cornwall went beyond even John’s unnatural death. I had no idea who the floating woman was or why she had done what she did. But she was both powerful and dangerous. Until we resolved the matter and brought the threat of her existence to an end, the Brethren had no choice but to stay here. The Cornish pack simply weren’t strong enough to fend off such an attack. It didn’t change the fact, however, that I also had to deal with what was happening back home in London.

I divided everyone into two groups. The first hit the library, searching through the ancient texts for any details about who the floating woman was. The rest began to scour the Othernet.

‘I’ll take a small group with me back to London,’ I told Staines. ‘But the rest of you need to stay here. Whoever she is, she needs to be contained. It could be we’re seeing the start of an all-out attack on all shifters. It’s unlikely – after all, she’d be more likely to start with the power base than a small pack with little fighting prowess like this one, but we can’t rule out the possibility.’

Staines agreed. ‘She may be testing her mettle, my Lord. We will be unprepared if she decides to turn her attention to other packs.’

‘Alert them to the possibility. And make damn sure that if she does appear, no-one tries to take her on. She’s far too dangerous.’

‘Yes, my Lord.’

‘We’ll complete the initiation ceremony for Julia. At least that might ease some of the concerns, if nothing else. She has a calming effect and tempers are brewing. Then I’ll leave at first light for London. Traffic will be light so it shouldn’t take long.’

‘I took the liberty of finding a local dealership to take your car away. We recouped most of the money. You’ll need to take one of the other cars or get the mage to open a portal.’

I frowned. From what I knew of the wizards, the latter part of their education involved specialising in particular areas. Floride was obviously a divination expert. I had no desire to risk venturing through a portal of his creation when there was a possibility it might send me to Siberia instead of where I needed to be. ‘Get the Arch-Mage to do it from his end. We can’t afford any screw-ups. I’ve been away from London for too long.’

Staines bowed. ‘For what it’s worth, Lola is apparently mending quickly now.’

‘At least that’s something,’ I grunted. It didn’t change the fact that others were dead though. I could only hope that the rest of the