me off at Skye’s place and he could drive my car home.
The woman in the first territory we’d visited, East Tennessee, she’d taken the bite and hadn’t suffered any ill effects. She hadn’t gone insane. She wasn’t changed into a dragon, but they said she definitely had something more magical in her blood. Her health had been enhanced, and she’d actually been cured of the only medical condition she’d had: psoriasis. They thought that the magic of the bite worked like a cure.
I understood why they needed discretion, but it made me hopeful. Not enough to rush back home and risk it, though. We left Tennessee and went to the other three territories, taking turns driving to keep our time cut down. Still, it had been two weeks since we’d left Bluewater.
The other three territories gave me so much more information. They all had a human mate in their clan. All were safe. I’d never felt such relief in my entire life.
About ten minutes from town, my phone rang. I hit the button. “Hey, Sammy, what’s up? We’re almost back.”
“Anthony, something’s wrong.”
My instincts went on high alert. Jace sat up and stared at the phone, even though Sammy’s voice came out of the car speakers. “What is it?”
“Tessa came to me earlier today, telling me you’d instructed her to employ me to wipe Skylar’s memories of the clan.”
“I did no such thing. Tell me you didn’t do it!” I gripped the steering wheel as my rage spiked and tried to drive sensibly.
“Of course not. But I wasn’t sure where you were with the search, and I didn’t want to bother you. I went and had lunch with Skye and decided she’s not a threat to our clan. I let her know what Tessa tried to do and came home. Tessa called me to see how it had gone, and I told her the truth.”
“I bet she didn’t take it well,” Jace said. I tried to laugh bitterly, but it came out as a growl. I was too angry and worried.
“Yeah, she kinda flipped. I’ve known her since she was a little girl and I’ve never seen her like that. She’s always been catty and scheming, but this was off the deep end. She said she’d handle it herself. I rolled my eyes at first and started to let it go, but then I got worried. I called Skye’s office, and she was still there working, so I waited. When I called them again and the office was closed, I tried her cell. I still had her number that you’d given me, so I tried to call, but it went straight to voicemail. I went to her house, and Anthony, there’s something majorly wrong.”
“What?” I yelled. “Spit it out!”
“I can’t get in. I’m afraid to directly attack with magic because it might rebound on me. There’s a sickly feeling in the air and a stench. I think Tessa’s gotten her hands on an untied witch, one without a clan or coven. There aren’t many witches that go without the protection and companionship of a witch family, but they are out there. Even rarer are witches willing to do this sort of magic without the sanction of a clan alpha or coven priestess.”
“Get to the point, Sammy.”
“The point is that I can’t fight it with magic. You are going to have to come with muscle. There’s a ward around the house! Get your ass here and fast because they’re going to scramble this poor girl’s brains.”
I hit the gas and Jace grabbed the phone, switching it off of the car’s system. “You focus on driving,” he said.
We were close to town, but Skye lived several minutes past that. I drove like I’d never driven in my life. He spoke to Sammy in a low voice, ordering the clan warriors to report and meet us at Skye’s.
We hadn’t had any clan wars in hundreds of years, but as was tradition, we had a fighting force, prepared to assemble at a moment’s notice.
I focused on weaving around slow cars and praying none of the police force was out. Jace hung up and made other phone calls, so he likely was warning our clan members that were officers. And sure enough, moments later, a police car pulled out in front of me as I rocketed down Main Street. I hated to take such a public route, but it was the fastest way to get to Skye. The car drove in front of me with the