Witch Interrupted Read online

  “What do you want, Vernon?” Had he not found all Katie’s monkshood? She hadn’t had as much as he’d expected to find. He shoved a hand in his pocket to tap the bay capsule. Still there.

  “Vernon, is it? And you know Dr. Marcus?” Tonya batted her eyelashes at the stunned region elder. Marcus sniffed, but couldn’t tell if the weathered, handsome face Vernon wore was a disguise. Considering he looked like he could be on television, Marcus was betting on disguise. “The doctor is our hero.”

  “Hero?” Vernon gaped at Tonya. “What is going on?”

  Tonya tossed her curly blond hair over her shoulder and smiled. “We’re a little tense after the accident. Don’t worry about it, honey. My hands are steady as rocks. Are you sure you’re not a customer?”

  Marcus blocked Katie, who was trying to wriggle under his arm.

  “Marcus, let me go,” she hissed. “I have to explain.”

  Surely she’d explained everything to Vernon when she’d slipped in that phone call. He’d told her it wasn’t safe to contact the elder, and she’d done it anyway.

  She didn’t trust anything he said any more than he ought to trust her. But if she hadn’t spelled him or killed him when she could have…

  “Vern, it’s a code six,” Katie yelled over Marcus’s shoulder.

  Code six was shorthand for recently wiped individuals in delicate condition. The keepers must not have changed their system since Katie had been Chang Cai.

  Vernon frowned. “How could you have a six when the wolf knows who I am?”

  “Who’s a wolf?” Zhang Li asked. “Is that a gang sign? Better not come around my shop flashing colors. I’ll shoot you.”

  Vernon ran a hand over his dark blond hair, streaked a distinguished gray at the temples. “Hell, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got keepers on my ass. We need to split.”

  Katie cursed, but Marcus could tell she was more frightened than angry. He strode to the window to inspect the street, and she trotted after him.

  “You led them here?” he said to Vernon. “Way to go.”

  “I had no clue Hiram could tap my fricking phone. The moron was still checking into Foursquare to announce he was the mayor of McDonald’s this time last year.”

  “Then you haven’t been paying attention.” The keepers weren’t cutting edge technologically, but they weren’t bumbling fools.

  “It’s not like I got myself into this fix on purpose, Rodríguez. You can’t exactly get high and mighty on me, considering the condition you’re in.”

  “His name is Dr. Marcus Delgado,” Tonya corrected. “Not Rodríguez. And there’s nothing wrong with his condition.”

  “When did Katie call you?” Marcus snapped at Vernon. “Why do you think I should be dead?”

  “She didn’t call me. Applebaum did. And I figured you were dead because nobody could find you for a year.”

  Marcus turned to Katie, who was watching him anxiously instead of the street. “You didn’t contact him?”

  “You thought I…” She huffed. “No, I did not. You convinced me it was a bad idea.”

  “Huh.” He kept it to one sound so his relief wouldn’t be obvious. Marcus was hardly a teenager, but this speeding from one emotion to another was going to break him out in acne if he wasn’t careful. Nevertheless, the consequences of anyone calling Vernon were the same.

  The keepers could be here any minute. If they kept arguing, his cushion for the pack patrol would disappear as well.

  “Applebaum said she needed a special way to find something that had been stolen. Apparently, since Katie’s here, it worked?”

  “It was functional.” That explained how Tonya and Zhang Li had stumbled across his Airstream. They’d conned some kind of location spell out of Vernon, though Marcus had never heard of such magic working over a distance.

  Or cutting through protective wards.

  Damn, Vernon was talented.

  Was he so talented Katie would prefer to entrust her safety to Vernon instead of Marcus?

  “Poor Vernon. Have you got amnesia too? I didn’t call you about stolen goods,” Tonya said. “I’ve never met you before today. Unless I forgot, I suppose.”

  “Somehow I don’t think I’m getting paid what you owe me,” he grumbled to her. Vernon wasn’t an elder and the former director of the keepers because he was slow on the uptake. He speared Marcus and Katie with an evil glare. “I see what’s going on here, and I have an idea why. You shouldn’t have done it, Katie. You should have cut and run.”

  Katie’s lips tightened. “I know.”

  Marcus felt a distinct urge to defend her, even though Vernon was right. He stared out the window instead.

  Nobody suspicious on the street, no vehicles except for a tiny Smart car, his truck, Zhang Li’s sedan and a hatchback missing a tire, which had been here last night. Nobody darted through the early morning shadows. Nobody crept through the empty lots and buildings. But with Vernon’s announcement, he could feel the keeper’s presence like a looming thunderhead.

  Tension rising, he addressed Vernon. “How close are they?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Any signs of the scheduled patrol?”

  “Don’t know that either. Let’s make tracks. Sorry, Dr. Delgado, no room for you in the car I borrowed. Count yourself lucky I’m letting you go free.”

  Katie and Marcus locked gazes for a moment. Vernon’s arrival, his power and preparedness, changed the scoreboard. Marcus had dosed himself with his preventative medley as usual, excluding the mask, but he couldn’t prevent Vernon from wresting Katie, Tonya and Zhang Li from him.

  Katie would know this. And realize she no longer needed him.

  Unacceptable. She wasn’t leaving him until he chose to release her. She was…his.

  In a soft voice, she said, “Vern, take Tonya and Zhang Li. Help them. I’m with Marcus. He and I have an agreement.”

  Stunned, Marcus wasn’t sure how to react to that or to the fact he felt as possessive of her as a toddler with a new toy. He blinked twice.

  “Don’t be stupid.” Vernon, bristling with annoyance, pinched herbs out of a side pocket of the backpack. “Since Katie doesn’t look hurt, I’ll give you once chance to get lost. You’d best take it.”

  It was one thing to deal with three witches who had no power or didn’t remember they were witches. It was another to deal with a live, loaded Vernon Harrower. Marcus sniffed, trying to determine what spell Vernon was considering. Could he counteract it?

  Tonya stuck her hands on her hips. “Don’t be nasty to the doctor. He helped us after a gas leak affected our memories.”

  “Bet he did.” Vernon crushed the herbs on his palm, creating a dust. He’d have to get close to smear it on Marcus, so all Marcus had to do was avoid him. “Everyone but Delgado, get your things. Let’s go.”

  “I don’t think I want to go anywhere with you,” Tonya said.

  “I’m damn sure I don’t,” Zhang Li added. “You look like a shithead.”

  “Look, this isn’t a request. I’m the ranking… Oh, hell.” Several blue-silver minivans with dark-tinted windows approached from the east. Vernon smacked the herbs off his palm and gestured at everyone to duck. “Get down.”

  While the keepers hadn’t favored minivans when Marcus had been there, he and Katie responded instantly to the warning, dropping below the level of the shop window.

  “Upstairs, through the kitchen,” she murmured. “Exit behind the china cabinet.” Witches always had a secret door or two. “You get Tonya, I’ll get Ba. He’ll trust me whether he realizes why or not.”

  Tonya regarded a crouching Vernon with skepticism. “I don’t know who you think you are, Mr. Hot Britches, but I don’t get on my knees because some guy told me to.”

  “Tonya, hide,” Katie urged. Marcus hadn’t heard anyone behind the shop, which didn’t mean no one was there. Who was driving the minivans?

  Vernon cursed at the standing woman. “Idiot woman, they will shoot you. They have better a
im than Zhang Li.”

  “Who is they?” Tonya gestured toward the street. “The soccer moms?”

  “Whoever they are, I’ll shoot ’em back.” Zhang Li picked up the gun. “I hate soccer moms.”

  “You hate everybody,” Vernon snapped. “Get your wrinkled ass behind the counter.”

  Outraged, Zhang Li disappeared. Marcus risked a glance above the sill. The minivans slowed near their parking lot. A window rolled down. A rifle barrel poked out.

  “God, I hate being awesome.” Vernon sprang off the floor and tackled Tonya right before buckshot sprayed the window.

  Zhang Li released a warbling war cry and began shooting back. Glass flew everywhere. Marcus dragged Katie half beneath him, safeguarding her from the worst cuts. He’d mend in an hour; she’d need heal-all. He could hear Vernon and Tonya bickering on the other side of the door but stayed alert for footsteps outside, out back, any signs that the keepers were charging into the building.

  Had to be them. The border patrol drove trucks and didn’t shoot first.

  Instead he heard the roar of diesel engines and the screech of tires. The gunfire ceased. Zhang Li cursed about not having a spare clip. Marcus then heard him dial the cordless phone.

  “Don’t call the cops,” Vernon shouted. “That’s all we need. Ouch, woman, that’s my family jewels.”

  “Your family’s not very rich, then,” Tonya retorted. “Of course he needs to call the police. Soccer moms can’t go around shooting up tattoo parlors.”

  “Hello, 9-1-1?” Zhang Li said. “We’re under attack. No, I don’t know where I am. A tattoo store. On some crappy road full of potholes. Can’t you trace the damn call? I’m an American citizen…I think. No, this isn’t a prank. Get me some help. A SWAT team. I’m out of bullets.”

  “Stay down,” Marcus told Katie. Since Zhang Li was out of ammunition and the keepers weren’t shooting, he risked another glance outside.

  Several pickup trucks skidded to a halt near the minivans, blocking the street in either direction. Masculine voices, loud and aggravated, cut through the arguing and shushing inside the tattoo parlor. Burly armed men began pouring out of the minivans and pickup trucks.

  Well, shit. The Birmingham patrol, ahead of schedule. And the keepers. Were the region elders next?

  A fat, smoking bundle lobbed through the shattered window and bounced on the glass-covered floor.

  “Gaia bless it,” Vernon complained. “I thought we could get out faster than this.”

  Marcus had too. His ears popped. Magic. He shook himself as heaviness descended. His herbal cocktail buoyed him above the creeping exhaustion.

  No so for the others. Beneath him, Katie sighed. Her dark brown eyes, lids drooping, stared into his. She touched his cheek, her hand sprinkled by droplets of blood. “I’m too drained to resist. Goddess, I’m out of practice.”

  “Fight it.” Marcus breathed deeply, oxygenating himself. Escaping the spell’s radius wouldn’t help because it had already been cast. The keepers used industrial strength sleep magic, thyme along with some combination of hops, lavender or valerian, and the massive size of the herbal bomb meant physical proximity wasn’t required.

  “They won’t move in immediately. They’re used to wolves. If you wake up first,” she said, her voice fading, “please save my father.”

  Marcus’s ears, however, popped a second time, from a closer source. Vernon released Tonya, who had the sense to stay down. He slithered nimbly through the glass to the smoking bundle and sprinkled herbs all over it.

  Katie’s eyes sprang open, and she blew out a breath. “That’s a relief. Guess I’ll save Ba myself.”

  “I can’t do that many times,” Vernon said. “The spearmint crop got leaf blight this year, and the good stuff is scarce.”

  Marcus met the other man’s gaze, recognized in him the determination to save everyone here—even if he didn’t particularly like them—and nodded.

  “They’re distracted. Everyone upstairs. Stay low.”

  Vernon scowled when Tonya, Katie and Zhang Li did as Marcus requested. Once they passed through the beaded curtain between the front and back rooms, they rose from their crouches and ran.

  Katie, stumbling up the stairs in front of Marcus, wiped her wounded arm on her shirt. His nose told him the cuts weren’t deep. “My blood was on the floor,” she warned him and Vernon, “and the pack patrol probably knows someone interesting was in here.”

  Vern followed them into the apartment. “We need to increase the distance until they lose track of you.”

  Marcus’s scent would draw the pack wolves like rain on a hot summer day, but they weren’t the main threat anymore. The keepers were. On the bright side, the keepers would likely subdue the patrol and wouldn’t be able to track their group as easily as wolves. Marcus could never have dodged the packers from this close.

  In the apartment, Marcus scooped up Katie’s duffel and his supplies. When he hoisted the large briefcase, the latch Zhang Li had apparently picked to get the gun sprang open, dumping half the contents.

  “Shit.” Katie dropped to her knees, shoveling Marcus’s gloves, swabs, books, test strips, granola bars, and odds and ends into the hard-sided case. “Your stuff.”

  “Leave it.” He caught her arm, dragged her up. “Get us through that back door.”

  “We’re parked out front.” Katie took the gun from her father. “We have to scare them off if we want the cars. Tonya’s car is parked in a long-term lot a mile away. The panic room won’t do us any good since I can’t cast the—” She broke off and looked at Vernon.

  “Panic room?” Vernon said. “I can set the boundaries. Where is it?”

  “I understand why we’d need a panic room in this violent neighborhood,” Tonya added.

  “I had to get creative since we couldn’t afford two leases. It’s in a Dumpster.” Katie retrieved ammunition clips from a vase on the mantel and stuffed some into her pockets and one into the gun. Her efficient movements let Marcus know she’d done this, or trained for this, hundreds of times. “Just in case, rendezvous at location G-160, forty-eight hours.”

  “To hell with a rendezvous.” Vern glowered. “You’re staying with me, Katie. If your dog stays too, he’s officially your problem.”

  From downstairs, a small explosion shook the building. Glass crashed in Katie’s bedroom. Shouts echoed outside as a battle of fists and howls erupted between the keepers and the Birmingham pack patrol.

  Tonya clutched Vernon’s arm. “What in the world are they doing, shooting bazookas? Lord, are we Mafia or something, and I forgot?”

  An odd expression crossed the elder’s face as he regarded his companion. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  “Hey, this china cabinet’s on wheels,” Zhang Li called from the kitchen. “There’s a door behind it.”

  “I’m going first,” Marcus said. “I can smell and hear anyone outside.”

  Vernon tried to beat him to the doorway. “I’m first. You can smell, but I can stun.” He pulled out another wad of herbs. It was Tonya’s turn to cast Vernon an odd look.

  Vernon wouldn’t knock him out since he needed Marcus’s help. “The keepers followed you here, Vernon. They’ll be expecting your skills, and they’ll know how to counteract them.”

  “It’s you they’re here for. I’m a side dish.”

  “Doubt that,” Marcus said, remembering the way Lars used to talk about Vernon. “They’re as anxious to catch you committing treason as they are me. Overly anxious, I’d say.”

  The keepers seemed to be operating free of the witch covenants, confronting wolves in the street, openly bombing places of business. They weren’t permitted to be this blatant. If standards had become this lax under Lars, it was all the more reason why the council’s teeth needed to be pulled.

  Marcus’s experiments were the way to do it.

  “Treason my ass,” Vern said. “Get out of my way.”

  “I don’t know what you two are talking about,” Tonya said, “bu
t I vote we call the police. They need to know there’s a gang war in our street.”

  While they argued, Katie slipped past them.

  “My gun is going first,” she called over her shoulder before disappearing into the kitchen.

  She wasn’t in any shape to take on keepers or packers. No magic, no mask, bleeding. They might know he and Vern were here, but she didn’t have to expose herself. Marcus wheeled after her, growling.

  Vernon hustled a reluctant Tonya along. Marcus couldn’t wait for them. He hurried Zhang Li down the narrow, dark stairwell, arriving at the bottom in time to see Katie duck through a short door. While he didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he wolfed out in front of Zhang Li and Tonya, he might have to, so he released a little of his hard-won restraint.

  With the boost of speed, he zipped past Zhang Li and bent nearly double to jet through the exit. Whatever was out there, Katie and a pistol couldn’t handle it alone.

  The sun and sense of openness in the alley fazed him momentarily, but he regained his bearings in a second. No people but Katie. No cars.

  The weedy, rutted track was lined by deserted buildings, a few empty lots and several Dumpsters on the near side. The other side was a field overgrown with tall weeds and a low-income residential area in the distance.

  Behind him, Zhang Li emerged, followed by Tonya and Vernon. Marcus caught a whiff of calming mix and noticed Tonya was content to let Vernon guide her. She smiled at Marcus when she saw him.

  Katie cleared the immediate area and gave them an OK sign. He didn’t snap at her, though he felt like it.

  “Which Dumpster?” Vernon whispered, looking extremely dubious. There were four within sight. He patted Zhang Li on the shoulder, and Marcus smelled the calming mix again.

  “The stenchy one. Don’t worry—it’s not real carrion. It’s a ward,” Katie explained. While house boundaries had to be renewed daily, subtle aversion wards could linger for weeks if the witch who cast them was strong enough. “Vern, the packet’s center front, inside. Chalk-based, amaranth, chicory, heliotrope.”

  Katie pointed across the open space toward the next structure and gestured for everyone to go.

  “Run,” Vernon said.