when I was a child," Leslie said to Charles, and she remembered not to look him in the eyes. "To make up for not being there to rescue my puppy, I think. I've never used it - and our expert in fae magic says that I need to be careful with it. But that sounds like a fair exchange to me." She looked at Beauclaire.
Gravely, he nodded. "I think that might be right."
She opened her purse and took out her wallet, and Charles could smell the magic from where he stood. Fae magic strong enough to make him sneeze, powerful enough to give him hope. She pulled out a little white card from her billfold. "I'm not exactly sure how to do this."
"Magic follows intention," said Charles, and Beauclaire gave him a sharp look. "Tell it what you want - and tear up the card to seal the deal."
"Since when did the Marrok's son become an expert in fae magic?" asked Beauclaire - and Charles saw Goldstein look very bland. It was "the Marrok's son" that had done it. Goldstein had heard that term before and now wanted to know what it meant.
"Since when did the fae give up information on the werewolves?" countered Charles silkily. Anna was missing: he didn't care what Goldstein found out. But the fae would do very nicely to sate Brother Wolf's desire to tear into flesh until it bled. Beauclaire, Brother Wolf decided, would be a worthy opponent, and once he killed something, maybe he could think clearly again.
Beauclaire took a cautious step back and Isaac eased between them. "You don't want to do anything rash, Charles," he cautioned. "We're all on the same team here."
"I wish - " said Leslie, drawing Charles's attention away from the fae. "I wish..." She looked at Charles. "One lost puppy for another - but Anna is yours as Toby was mine. So I wish that as I lost my puppy, my dog that I loved, that Charles should find his lost wolf." She tore the card in half and the magic...did something.
Charles's phone rang before he could figure out what the magic had done. Its sudden blaring ringtone that wasn't the song it sang when Anna called him irritated Brother Wolf, who pulled it out of their pocket and crushed it to make it stop.
Everyone in the condo quit breathing - and Charles realized that his ability to speak coherently had apparently given them a false sense of safety.
"How long until it works?" he asked Beauclaire in a soft, soft voice.
The fae sighed. "We don't even know it will work, werewolf. Something happened, but it wasn't my magic in that card. Treasach tended toward subtle magic that snuck up behind you."
Another cell phone rang and Charles growled. Isaac pulled out his phone and started to hit the off button, but paused. "Four-zero-six is the Montana area code, right?"
He answered the phone before Charles replied, and clear as day Charles's father's voice came out of the speaker of Isaac's phone.
"I have a feeling that my son is in a bad place," Bran said. "And I have made a habit of not ignoring my feelings - especially when neither he nor Anna are answering their phones."
Isaac gave Charles a nervous glance. "That's right. Charles is here and Anna's been taken by the murdering bastards we've been chasing. We have the FBI here, the two who've been working with us. And Beauclaire is present as well, the fae whose daughter we rescued yesterday."
It was a very good rundown of what was happening, Charles thought.
"Why isn't Charles chasing down Anna?"
Brother Wolf growled.
"That's not helpful, Charles," Bran said.
"He says he can't contact her."
There was a very long pause and then his father said quietly, "Charles. Is it the same thing that was bothering you before you went to Boston?"
Charles couldn't answer, wasn't human enough to answer. He turned around and stalked to the far side of the room. If he hadn't killed them, hadn't executed those wolves in Minnesota, he'd have been able to find Anna before she got hurt.
"Before Boston..." said Isaac and his voice trailed off. "Oh, I know what you did before Boston, Charles. This could get messy," he said to the others, suddenly decisive. "I think we can work something out, but it might be better if you people, who are a little too easy to hurt, are out of the way. Would you mind waiting in the hall?"
"You have something to talk about that you don't want