That Old Black Magic

SEVENTEEN

Ben tried to keep hold of the shapeshifter, but she put up a struggle once they reached the exterior of the Malleus headquarters. He’d taken a shortcut to a hidden exit a guard had shown him for emergencies. In his opinion, this qualified. They had to get as far away from this place as possible.

The woman, however, wasn’t making things easy for him.

A block away she finally managed to wrench herself out of his grip.

“Are you crazy or something?” she snarled.

“Possibly.”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I believe I just saved your life.”

She stared at him for a long moment before thrusting her wrist out to him. “Take this thing off me.”

He eyed the cuff. “You want me to remove it so you can shift form and run away?”

“That’s basically what I’m thinking.”

Despite himself, amusement began creeping in at the edges. Or maybe he was just losing it. With one decision he’d ruined his entire life, and there was no turning back now. “What’s your name?”

“Bertha.”

He snorted. “You’re lying.”

“You’re smart.”

“I already told you my name. Ben Hanson.”

“Yeah, golden-boy.”

“What?”

She swept her gaze over him. They were behind a corner and could hear the busy downtown traffic close by. “That was Darrak’s nickname for you. He thought you were a real threat to his and Eden’s happily never after.”

So funny he forgot to laugh. “Yeah, some threat.”

She studied him for a long, heavy moment. “The name’s Kathleen Harris. But people I like call me Leena.”

“Leena.”

“I said people I like call me that.” Her amber eyes slid down the front of him again. “The jury’s still out on you.”

He didn’t have time for witty repartee. “We need to get away from here. It won’t be long before they figure out what I did and this”—he brushed his fingers over the brand on his arm, currently covered by the sleeve of his leather jacket—“is going to lead them right to me. By then I need to make sure you’re safe. So are you coming with me or not?”

She stood with her hands on her hips, still studying him as if he was a curious creature she’d found at a museum. “Why did you rescue me? Why would you put yourself at risk like that unless this is some sort of stupid trick?”

He didn’t have time for this. “You don’t trust easily, do you?”

“As little as I can, actually.”

“I rescued you because…” His jaw clenched. “Because I’m not that person, the one they think I am. I have no interest in forcibly extracting information from women and I don’t particularly care what that information is or who wants it. And if that’s what they want me for then they can look elsewhere.”

Leena frowned at him. “You’re right about one thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“You did put a nice target on your back, Ken doll.”

He sighed. “Thought I asked you to stop calling me that?”

“Why? You’re gorgeous, blond, and way too perfect to be anything but plastic underneath it all.”

He almost laughed at that. “Yeah, so perfect. I’m about as far from that as you can get.”

Leena stopped arguing and followed him to the van that he’d parked two blocks away. He’d known from the moment he arrived what he was going to do and what it would mean.

“So you don’t want to be the Malleus’s pet anymore even though you went through the ritual and got the brand,” she said. “Not the smartest move, but pretty damn brave to defy a direct order like that.”

He glanced at her as he shifted the van into drive. “You sound like you know the ropes.”

“I’ve been around a few dangerous men in my life. Some of them were mixed up with Malleus business. They always got me in deep trouble. You, I’m thinking, aren’t much different, even if you’re all knight in shining armor right now. I just want to know what changed. It couldn’t have just been me that prompted this crazy decision. You don’t even know me.”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he pulled onto the road. “You want to know what changed?”

“Yeah. Lay it on me.”

“Darrak’s gone and it’s my fault. But only now I realize it was the wrong thing to do.”

Leena gasped out loud. “He’s gone?”

“One-way nosedive into the Void.” Ben never in a million years would have guessed he’d feel guilty about that, but he did.

“Holy shit.” Leena pressed back in her seat and raised a hand to her mouth. “How’s Eden taking it?”

“Badly.” He blinked hard. “I was stupid to come between them, but I honestly had no idea how much she loved him. It was a mistake. I see that now, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I can just fix other things that need fixing.”

She went quiet for a moment before nodding firmly. “Fine. So now what’s the plan?”

“The plan is to get you to a motel as soon as possible.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That sounds interesting.”

That she was able to make him blush surprised even him. “So you’ll be safe.”

“That’s usually the reason dangerous men want to take me to motels.”

A nervous laugh threatened to burst free from his throat. “Trust me, I’m not some romantic hero who’s planning on ravishing you.”

“Mm-hmm. Okay.”

He tried to focus on the road. “The last thing I need in my life right now is a shapeshifter. This supernatural crap is all new to me, and I’m not liking it a bit. If I survive this I want to get my life back to normal as much as I can. Get it?”

“Got it.”

He amused her, she wasn’t exactly hiding this fact. “Once I know you’re safe I have to come back and take care of some other business.”

This shifted her expression from amusement to concern. “Are you stupid or something? They’ll kill you!”

“There’s an angel in a cell near yours. I need to rescue him, too.”

Her eyes widened. “An angel? How do you know that?”

Ben came to a stop at a light and eyed their surroundings cautiously. “He had wings. They were plucked daily. Didn’t you notice anything?”

“No, I… I mean I heard them talking to another prisoner near me. I think the guy’s name was Daniel, but I didn’t hear anything else that might help.”

Daniel. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.

“Why would they want his feathers?” he mused.

Leena casually propped her left leg up on the dashboard. “An angel’s feathers aren’t really feathers. That’s just what they look like in the human world. They’re more like, uh, celestial Wheaties, if you get my meaning. An angel gets his power from his wings.”

Ben frowned. “How do you know that?”

“I’m a veritable encyclopedia of supernatural facts, handsome. Can’t help it. I retain everything I’ve ever seen or heard.” She tapped her temple. “Werepanthers are known to have photogenic memories.”

Werepanther. Terrific.

He rubbed a hand over his forehead. His head had started to throb. “Why would they pluck his feathers?”

“It would keep an angel weak and unable to fight back, which might be why they’ve succeeded in locking him up. Also, if their feathers are ingested by a mortal, it gives them a whole lot of power.”

Ben was silent for a moment. “They eat the feathers?”

“So the rumor goes.”

“It’s happened before?”

She nodded. “Legend has it that Hitler had an angel trapped so he could grind the wings up into his breakfast every day. Thought it would make him invincible.”

That was a disturbing image. “Didn’t work though, did it?”

“No, but I’m thinking he didn’t have enough time to make it work. Anyone so determined to trap an angel and suck up some of that celestial energy is up to something big. Something epic. The only question is who and what?”

Ben thought he knew who, although he wasn’t sure what Oliver Gale could possibly want that would require a huge influx of celestial energy.

Hitler wanted to rule the world.

So what exactly was the leader of the Malleus after?