Magic Shifts

  “Kate . . .” Doolittle said gently. “The technology has been up the whole time.”

  “I know. But all of us, everything that is alive, produces and stores magic. We hold on to it even during the strongest tech wave. That’s why shapeshifters can still change their form. Last night, when I was dying, every living thing in the boundaries of the land I claimed surrendered a tiny fraction of that magic and offered it to me. And I took it.” My voice shook. “I took it to survive.”

  Doolittle opened his mouth.

  “Look into my brain. You will see progress that shouldn’t be there. I’m speaking in complete sentences.” I leaned forward. “I could’ve asked for more. I could’ve taken it all to heal myself. I could’ve drained all of you dry.”

  Doolittle’s eyes widened as the meaning of my words sank in. I could’ve unleashed a blight to save myself. He recoiled.

  We both knew what happened to living creatures when magic was suddenly ripped away from them. A year ago, the Lighthouse Keepers, a terrorist organization obsessed with banishing magic, unleashed a device that did precisely that at Palmetto, a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta. When we got there, Palmetto had become a mass grave.

  Doolittle swallowed. “Roland can’t be allowed to claim this land.”

  “He won’t as long as I live. I’ve assumed the responsibility for it. I’m meant to protect it. We are bound now by something I don’t fully understand, but I know that this land didn’t sacrifice its magic so I could lie in bed for three years taking my time. Right now there is a creature out there terrorizing the city and sending hordes of ghouls to do its dirty work. It is immune to my magic, which means its powers and mine have something in common. My father could’ve sent it here. I have to stop it. I can’t turn my back on Atlanta. It would mean turning my back on Curran, and Julie, and you. I care too much about all of you. Heal me now.”

  Doolittle shook his head, rubbing his eyes. “Once I start, I will have to finish. It will take a long time, it won’t be pleasant, and you may not recall anything surrounding the moment of your injury. That I cannot heal.”

  “Thank you.”

  He sighed. “Everyone has a cross to bear.”

  “Am I yours?”

  He nodded. “I keep trying to decide if it’s a punishment or a blessing.”

  “A bit of both.” I smiled. “You might as well bring him back. At least we’ll both know what we’re in for from the start.”

  • • •

  IT FELT LIKE hundreds of spiders crawling through my brain. It made the inside of my nose itch. Occasionally they tugged on something and then nausea gripped me. After I heaved for the first time, Curran brought a big bucket for me. I took it away from him. Having him hold it for me would’ve been going too far. I still had standards. Nauseated and weak, but what are you going to do?

  The control over my body came back slowly. It was like pushing against the current of a very powerful fire hydrant or walking underwater, while heavy blocks fell onto my head from above. Sometimes they slid into place effortlessly and sometimes they landed so hard, it felt like they ripped through my brain. Past events exploded in my head as if my memories had somehow gotten stuck in a replay loop.

  Julie crying in a restaurant over crab legs and shrimp.

  Andrea dragging me out to lunch.

  The flood kept coming, relentless. The flare. Fomorians running across the field.

  Mishmar.

  Greg’s savaged body.

  My aunt. Live long . . . child. Live long enough to see everyone you love die. Suffer . . . like me.

  Curran. Stay with me, baby.

  I will. I promise I will.

  Aunt B dying.

  Curran.

  Swan Palace.

  My father.

  . . .

  Death. So much death. So many people I’d killed. So many people I cared about who had died. So many corpses in my wake.

  You truly are my daughter.

  We are great and powerful monsters. Love demands sacrifices. When you love something the way you love your people, Blossom, you must pay for it. Old powers are awakening. Those who have slept, those who were dead, or perhaps not quite dead.

  I bent forward under the pressure. Something hot slipped out of my eyes and I realized I was crying.

  This is my city. These are my people.

  I will hunt you. I will succeed. Maybe not now, but I will never give up.

  “Done,” Doolittle said, his voice hoarse from the strain.

  Curran put his arms around me. It was such a simple gesture, but his touch pulled me out of the tangled chaos of my memories back to now, anchoring me here.

  The two of them were looking at me.

  “Hey,” Curran said quietly.

  I swallowed. My head throbbed.

  “Did it work?” Curran asked Doolittle.

  “I don’t know.” Doolittle sounded tired.

  Curran rose and held up his hand. “Kick my hand.”

  I pushed off the bed. They said walking was just controlled rhythmic falling. My falling turned out to be uncontrolled. I landed on my ass.

  Curran didn’t move.

  I got up to my feet. My body felt like a numb limb coming back to life.

  I snapped a crescent kick. I’d whipped it with my hip and it was so fast, it blurred. My foot slapped his hand. He took a step back. His eyes narrowed.

  “Tap,” I told him.

  “It worked,” Doolittle said.

  CHAPTER

  13

  “WHAT’S THE LAST thing you remember?” Doolittle asked me.

  “My power word backfired for some reason. I think the backlash of magic caused my stroke. I tried to freeze the giant and failed. The recoil from it hit me and it felt like my head exploded.” I felt oddly flat. As if there were no emotion at all in me.

  “It did,” Doolittle said.

  Curran was watching me carefully.

  “It was the worst headache of my life. I thought I was dying.” I tried to scrounge up more memories. “I was killing the giant. Lago jumped on it, but I had already cut the vein in the giant’s neck. We fell. Nothing after that.” My voice sounded flat too, as if it were someone else talking.

  “You killed the giant. Law enforcement showed up. His corpse started spitting lizards,” Curran said.

  “How big? What color?”

  It took him about ten minutes to bring me up to speed. It was Friday, March 4, three o’clock in the afternoon. I had lost Thursday and a good chunk of Friday, although I could’ve sworn I’d been in the hospital bed a lot longer. The twenty-four-hour delay might have cost Eduardo his life.

  “No news on Eduardo?”

  “No,” Curran said.

  “Where were you? I thought you and Julie were trapped in the Guild.”

  “I went to kill some ghouls,” Curran said.

  “You should’ve left a note.”

  “I should’ve left a note,” he said. His jawline was tight.

  I pushed off the bed and walked to the bathroom. My legs obeyed me. The last remnants of the headache lingered, but they too began to melt. I brushed my teeth and splashed cold water on my face, feeling numb and somehow disconnected, as if I wasn’t truly in my body but was standing nearby, watching some strange woman washing her face.

  “You need to be alert,” Doolittle’s voice floated to me. “There is no way to determine how much function she has recovered. She may become disoriented. There might be sharp personality fluctuations. Normally I would expect her to panic, but we both know . . .”

  “She will probably stab someone instead,” Curran finished.

  I wiped my face with a towel and looked at myself in the mirror. Slowly, very slowly, a hint of recognition stirred in me. Hi. My name is Kate Daniels. Nice to meet you. I can still kick peo
ple in the head. I am still me. I have people I love who love me back. I have a job to do.

  I felt better. My body had been resting in the hospital bed for hours. Very slowly, bit by bit, it began to feel like me again. I felt fresh as if I had gotten up on Monday morning after a very relaxing weekend.

  I stepped out of the bathroom.

  Doolittle rolled to the door.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “I’m going to lie down,” he said. “Because I am old and tired, and I have exceeded my monthly dose of excitement. Kate, no strenuous activity. No fighting, no sex, and no power words. Especially not against any giants. If you repeat that experience, it will kill you. Your brain is still healing. Don’t do anything that could raise your blood pressure. Come and see me in a week. I don’t know why I prattle on because I’m sure you will ignore me.”

  I came over and hugged him.

  “There now.” Doolittle shook his head.

  “Thank you for everything.”

  “You listen to me.” Doolittle fixed me with his stare. “I do not want to bury you. I don’t want to see you in a coffin. At some point, no matter how stubborn you are, you need to stop treating your body as if it were a sword that you can resharpen every time it breaks.”

  “If it breaks, sharpening alone won’t fix it.”

  Doolittle made an annoyed grunt. “Kate! Take care of yourself. If you don’t care about an old man like me, do it for the sake of your future husband and your daughter.”

  “No power words against the giants,” I promised.

  He left. I closed the door behind me and turned.

  Curran stood by the bed, his arms crossed on his chest. I walked over to him.

  “Are you back or are you not?” he asked quietly.

  “Somewhat.”

  “Kate.”

  The way he said my name made me want to reach out and touch him.

  “I need to know where we are.” His gray eyes had grown dark, not angry but resigned. “Are we okay? Are we complete strangers, are we on a first date, or are we going home together tonight?”

  I stepped closer to him and kissed him. For a moment he didn’t respond, and then he opened his mouth and pulled me to him, gripping me. I licked his tongue, letting his taste wash over me. Anticipation flooded me. This felt right. He was mine. My Curran. I’d almost lost him, but I’d fought for him and here he was, loving me. I slid my hands up his chest and around his neck. We stood locked, intertwined, almost one, tasting the same taste, breathing the same breath, and in this moment I felt whole.

  I felt on fire.

  He thrust his tongue into my mouth, pressing it against mine, his body so hard and strong against me, his skin hot, his hands roaming my back, sliding lower along the curve, and cupping my butt. He kissed me, hard and ravenous, drinking me in. Every stroke of his tongue against mine made me crazier and crazier. I slid my hands into his short hair, pressing into him. I wanted it to last forever, to stay like this, wrapped up in him, whole, loved, and wanted. I needed more.

  People rose from my memories: my adoptive father, Greg, my biological father . . . Get lost, all of you. He is mine. I want him, I picked him, and he is mine. I don’t have to justify it to you or anyone else. If you don’t like it, piss off.

  We broke apart. His eyes were full of golden sparks. Whatever restraints held him back, I had just torn into pieces. His gaze should’ve melted the clothes right off my body, and I had no idea why they were still there. I raised my chin and he dipped his head to my neck. His teeth nipped the skin there, sending delicious shivers down my spine.

  “Love me,” I whispered. “Love me and we’ll be okay.”

  His hands roamed my body, caressing, stoking the need in me with every brush of his hard fingers. He inhaled my scent. I ground against him and felt the long hard length of him behind the fabric of his jeans. Yes. Please.

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “What?” Curran said, his voice even.

  I kissed the sensitive spot under his jaw, tasting his skin and the faint scratch of stubble. It drove him nuts. I remembered that, too.

  His eyes went completely gold.

  “You wanted an update on the Guild,” Derek said through the door.

  God damn it.

  “They’re having a meeting in an hour. Also, Trisha says we have half an hour to clear the Keep before it causes issues. They are having trouble containing the fact that we’re here.

  “Curran?” Derek called.

  “We got it.” With a low growl, Curran let go of me, looking as if it physically hurt him to step away.

  “He has the worst timing,” I said. “Always.”

  “It’s his superpower.” Curran grimaced. “We have to stop anyway. I don’t want you to regret this later. And I don’t want your head to explode.”

  “Really? You’re so good that my head would explode?”

  It took him a moment. His expression changed from intense to speculative. “It’s a possibility. I’m not a doctor, but Doolittle says it could happen.”

  “That’s a lot of expectation to live up to.”

  “I exceed expectations.”

  So modest, too.

  “Do you want to go home?” he asked.

  “No. I want to go to the Guild and then I want to find Eduardo.” And kick his kidnapper’s ass out of this city.

  He pulled a bag from under my bed. “Your gear. I had Derek stop by the house.”

  I eased the bag open and saw my belt, my throwing knives, my old beat-up jeans, and a bag with the strange dirty glass we had found by Eduardo’s car. “I love you.”

  He squeezed me to him, kissed my forehead, and breathed in the scent of my hair. The relief was so plain in the way he touched me.

  “It’s okay,” I told him.

  “I know.” His voice was quiet. “I will always be there. I will walk across the whole planet if I have to.”

  I closed my eyes and whispered, “I’ll meet you halfway.”

  A couple of minutes later we emerged into the waiting room. Derek was slouching against a wall. Julie sat next to Ascanio. The same Ascanio who’d told her I might end up paralyzed or with amnesia and that I wanted to go home to die.

  Julie saw me and jumped to her feet. Ascanio grabbed her hand, trying to hold her back.

  Amnesia, huh. Well, let’s see how it plays out.

  “I don’t know who you are,” I told him. “But don’t touch my kid.”

  Surprise slapped his face. He let go and Julie hugged me. I hugged her back.

  “Are you okay?” Julie asked.

  “I’m okay.” I told her. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you. You got it?”

  “I got it.” She nodded. We’d talk about it more later when we weren’t in front of other people. Some things were better discussed in private.

  Curran was moving and I walked next to him. We had to get the hell out of the Keep as soon as we could.

  Derek and Julie fell in behind us. Ascanio chased me. “Kate! It’s me.”

  “‘Me’ is a terrible name,” I told him. “You should aim for at least three letters.”

  “Ascanio! You have to remember me.”

  I shook my head. “Nope.”

  “It’s not fair!” he declared.

  “Yes, make it all about you,” Julie told him.

  Ascanio stopped. “I will make you remember me!” he called.

  The four of us kept going.

  “You do remember him?” Julie whispered.

  “Of course, I remember him.”

  She snickered.

  “Where is Barabas?” Curran asked.

  “He said he would be at the Guild in case we decided to attend their meeting,” Derek said. “He packed us a care package. It’s in my car.”


  “Good,” Curran said.

  “We’ll need to stop by the Steel Horse to pick up the Clerk,” I added. Walking into the Guild with the Clerk would be like sucker-punching Bob right in the gut.

  “Did you get a look at the giant?” I asked Julie.

  “Yes.”

  “What color was the magic of the corpse?”

  “Bronze,” she said. “Just like the Tahoe.”

  That’s what I thought. “Let’s talk more in the car.”

  We opened the big doors. Six people barred our way. I recognized two. The Beast Lord’s personal guard.

  Curran didn’t even slow down.

  “Um . . .” one of the men said.

  “Move,” Curran said.

  They moved. We headed down the hallway. A petite woman turned the corner and rushed toward us, adjusting her large glasses. Dali. Hey, I recognized her. Score one for me.

  “Wait.” Dali blocked our path. “Kate, you’re walking?”

  “Yes.” And kicking.

  “Can you tell me what’s going on? I know that whatever you’re doing is connected to the Pack, but Jim is ducking me.”

  “We’re handling it,” Curran told her.

  “I’m not asking you.” Dali turned to me. “What’s going on?”

  In the old days I would’ve walked down the hallway and made sure nobody could hear us so I wouldn’t cause an incident, but I was no longer the Consort and I didn’t give a shit. “Eduardo is missing and Mahon won’t look for him because he doesn’t think Eduardo would make a proper son-in-law. George asked Jim to help, but he doesn’t want to overstep his authority.”

  Dali blinked and turned to the personal guard. “Rodney. Go and get Eduardo’s file for me.”

  “I can’t.” The big shapeshifter arranged his face into an apologetic expression. “Jim won’t like—”

  Dali leaned forward, her stare direct and heavy. “I don’t care what Jim likes. Do it.”

  Rodney hesitated.

  “What are you waiting for?” Dali asked. Her voice made it clear she wasn’t interested in an answer.