He shrugged. “Because now I can bug you no matter how far away you are.”
I stepped in closer to him, all thoughts of freaky mate mind melding gone. “I won’t leave like that again,” I said it to him, but then I looked at everyone. My pack. I looked each one of them in the eyes, whether human or animal. “I’m sorry. I won’t ever do that again,” I told them all.
When my eyes finally rested on Keegan, he nodded and that was that. I was forgiven.
12
WHILE LOGAN AND I were in our lovable mate bubble, Danny had been looking at the yellow shimmering magic wall that Eva had built around us.
“Little FYI, we’re going to need an exit plan,” Danny said from the edge of the alley. I could see now that Jeanine was weaving her own magic into the wall, and beside her was Steven, the two other druids from Flagstaff, and a shitload of other scary looking people. They stood beyond Eva’s transparent yellow wall and glared at us as if sizing up their dinner.
Eva growled. “Of all the people you went to, it had to be her.”
I flinched. “Yeah … about that. I asked her to do a spell that would make it impossible for you guys to find me, but I think she did something else. I can’t … shift.”
Eva’s whole body froze and she spun to face me. “Tell me you did not give her your blood.”
Oh shit.
“She did,” Logan groaned, and I turned to face him with wide eyes.
“Hey! Get out of my head!” I scolded him.
‘Traitor,’ I pushed at him mentally.
He just gave me a look that said, ‘I told you to never give a sorcerer your blood.’
“Oh, Sloane! Honey, you have no idea what you’ve done.” Eva was softer now, approaching me like I was a rabid animal about to attack. Her hands were out and she walked slowly, using a calm voice. It scared the shit out of me.
“W-what did I do?” My voice stuttered as the fear took hold of me.
“A spell bound in blood is permanent,” she said with finality, and the walls of the alley started to spin. Permanent?
Logan stepped closer to Eva. “No. There has to be another way. If she can’t shift, she can’t fight, she can’t fly. She will die.”
The yellow spell wall cracked behind us and Eva looked resigned. “We will deal with this later. I’ll figure something out. There is one way I know of, but it’s dangerous.”
“Umm, Eva!” Danny yelled, his voice jumping up two octaves, and Eva spun with her hands out, throwing yellow magic like crazy, trying to repair the wall.
“Get us a way out of here!” she roared behind us.
Logan reached out and took my hand. “Does your purple magic still work?”
I thought of how I had blasted the druid into the wall and nodded. “I just can’t shift.”
Logan cursed. “Which makes it easier for the druids to catch you. Alright, let’s get out of here and we will figure this out. Don’t worry.”
‘Don’t worry? If I die, you die!’ I screamed into his head.
His eyes went green. “No one is dying. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
We scanned the alley and our eyes fell on a door at the far wall opposite the club. The door said “Bakery” in a pastel blue cursive font. Logan took two steps towards it and shot the lock out, kicking the door open. Eva had thrown some kind of smoke spell, making it impossible for the bad guys to see what we were doing. Sophie was right behind us, gun raised.
Logan went first into the dark room, before declaring, “All clear.” I followed, with Sophie behind me. We were in a bakery; the whole front wall was glass, and I could see one of the druids standing there outside, not looking in the shop, but it was too close for comfort.
“Get down,” Logan hissed, and Sophie and I dropped to the ground and went left, away from the druid and towards the display cases. My stomach growled as the smell of sugary icing hit my nose. Would it be bad karma to steal a donut? I thought to myself.
‘Yes,’ Logan replied.
My eyes widened. This was not going to work. I couldn’t live with someone inside of my every thought. And what the hell, I wasn’t getting any thoughts from him!
‘Eva can fix it. I’m linked to the pack, so I’m used to this,’ was all he told me.
He was? Since when? It hit me then how little we knew about each other.
‘That is something we can remedy with time,’ he said and I groaned. We army-crawled our way to the back and through the kitchen. When we realized we were out of sight, and no one was in the bakery late at night working, we popped up. There was a huge tray of creamy, frosted, ice-pink cupcakes sitting on the table, and Sophie’s eyes met mine and we both smiled. She totally wanted one too. Hah!
Logan called us to the back, and upon further inspection we found a back door that led to another alley, this one deserted and leading to the open street, where we could escape.
“Sophie, get the pack. Have Eva do a blinding spell so they can’t see you guys coming through the door. Sloane and I will bring the car around.”
She nodded and re-holstered her weapon. “You got it.”
Logan took my hand in his, then we started running out the back, where I assumed Logan had a car waiting. As we reached the end of the alley, I saw some cars parked on the street, but didn’t recognize any of the pack’s. I was shocked when Logan pulled out keys and beeped them, lighting up a large stretch limousine. “What the...?” I stood there dumbfounded as Logan waved away my expression. “Don’t ask. We put Danny in charge of getting a car big enough for all of us.”
I grinned, forgetting for a moment the horrible situation we were in. He popped open my side of the door and I got in, shotgun. The second I closed my door, Logan put the car in drive and careened the huge vehicle down the alley, nearly scraping the sides at the tight turn. The limo was newer, with black leather and a divider glass window. As Logan drove us up the alley, I could see most of the pack outside of the back bakery door, and was flooded with relief. I thought back to Steven and something that had been bothering me, something I wanted to ask Logan.
“Logan, that druid. He was inside, and I barred the door with the dumpster, and then he was right behind me. Then when you and Keegan had him up against the wall … he just disappeared.”
Please let him have had a twin brother waiting in the alley or something explainable.
Logan nodded. “Ardan has the power to teleport. They’re wind druids. Steven must be his new right-hand man. Ardan’s power trickles down the druid line and gets more diluted as it goes. The second I saw him vanish like that, I knew we were dealing with a powerful one.”
He lost me at teleport. He’d freaking just said “teleport.” I didn’t know what was crazier, the fact that teleportation was real, or the sight of half a dozen naked shifters in the alley covering their junk with their hands. Logan pulled the limo up to the side door and everyone but Sophie was either fully or partially naked, save for Eva and Danny, who didn’t have the ability to shift. Which was funny considering Sophie was probably the only person who liked to be naked. Instead of watching the alley for threats, she was checking out Ruben’s impressive glutes.
“Get in!” Logan whisper screamed.
Everyone piled in the back and the car sank down a few inches with the weight. I was assuming there were clothes in the back; otherwise this was going to be a long and uncomfortable drive. The privacy panel had been pulled up so that Logan and I couldn’t see or hear anything from the back.
Mentally, I had calculated everyone, and finally figured out who was missing. “Wait! Gear,” I shouted, as Logan began driving the limo off down the alley and back onto the main street.
Logan pointed up to the sky. “He’s been looking out and reporting if anyone was coming near the back alley.”
“Reporting how?” I took a side glance at him.