I started toward the lawn to portal out back to Kitty Kat, but froze when I heard Bridget’s voice from inside. My other sight was still engaged, and it tended to sharpen my hearing more than the average person’s.
“No, I don’t know!” Bridget was whisper-shouting to someone, presumably on the phone. “You told me he was sniffing around to break the geas, but you didn’t tell me Victor had found my damn location already!”
Shit. The fox was Vic... and if Vic was Kit’s biological father... would he feel a duty to tell Kit he’d seen me here? With her?
Fuck. I needed to get back and break this damn NDA fast. If Kit found out about Bridget from someone else... someone not me... Shit, this is not good.
Casting faster than the eye could see, I portaled myself back to the luxurious hotel suite we had set up our new base in, thanks to Vali’s never-ending supply of bribes and fake ID’s.
“Kitty Kat?” I called out, trying really hard not to let worry cloud my voice. The only way I could think of to break Bridget’s confidentiality clause was to bond with Kit. Maybe I wasn’t totally ready, but there was no time left. I had to be the one to tell her. It had to come from me.
“Hey bro.” Austin yawned, coming out of one of the bedrooms wearing nothing but a towel and looking exhausted. “What’s up?”
“Is Kit in there?” I asked. “I need to ask her something really important.”
“She stupidly went out with Vali to get some air. The magic shit was messing with her head again, and she was starting to throw fireballs at me.” Austin shrugged. “God forbid she remember that people are trying to kidnap and kill her, but apparently the dragon is good enough protection.” He wasn’t as concerned about Kit’s increasing temper as everyone else seemed to be. Maybe because he liked her angry and unstable? Made her more like him, I guessed.
“When are they due back, do you know?” I demanded, clenching my fists at my sides to stop them shaking. The threat of Vic getting to her first was making me freak all the way out, even though I knew he had a long way to travel from Washington down to where we were in LA... Just how fast could foxes run? Or would he shift back into human and drive? Or fly?
Oh, God. I was going to get a stomach ulcer.
“No idea.” My twin shrugged, running a hand through his dark hair and flicking water droplets everywhere. “What’s the big panic anyway?”
“Just... I need to talk to her.” I chewed the inside of my cheek while I debated my next move. Kit was safe with Vali, I knew this. But they could be gone for hours yet...
“Hey, can you take a look at an amulet for me?” I asked Austin, remembering the bracelet in my pocket. He’d said Kit’s magic was driving her nuts again, and bonding me would only make it worse, so I wanted to have a safe option available for her.
Austin nodded, and I tossed the piece of jewelry over to him. He raised an eyebrow at me, then snapped his fingers to bring Tyson into existence. He didn’t have the cool ability to switch to other sight himself; he relied on Tyson to do it for him.
The big tiger materialized beside his master in a flash of light, then yawned his massive jaws in an echo of Austin’s own exhaustion.
Austin said nothing, just held the bracelet up to Tyson to look at and sniff. They were doubtlessly communicating via Mage bond... something I was supremely jealous of, even though I desperately hoped not to get my own familiar.
It was a cool trick. Not exactly like telepathy, more just that Tyson’s knowledge automatically appeared in Austin’s mind. And vise versa.
“It’s spelled,” Austin pointed out the obvious, and I rolled my eyes.
“No shit, asshole.” I flopped down onto the couch and rubbed my forehead. “My mentor gave it to me for Kit. It’s supposed to help her control the conflicting magics from her bonds, but I wanted us to double-check that is what the spell is first.”
Austin raised his brows at me in surprise, glancing at the bracelet in his hand. “You don’t trust your mentor?”
I grimaced. “Not exactly. I just... want to be sure.”
“Okay, I get that. I wouldn’t be super comfortable giving this to her without checking it out either...” He trailed off as he considered the little amulet. “Let’s do a diagnostic spell on it. It won’t tell us exactly what the spell is, but it’ll give us a rough idea whether it will cause her any harm.”
A long sigh gusted out of me, and my shoulder relaxed a fraction. “Thanks bro, I really appreciate it.”
“No problems, bro. Let me just put on some pants, and we can get started.”
23
KIT
My walk with Vali really did help me cool the hell down. My temper had me flying off the handle while just trying to watch a movie with the guys. But I still maintained that it was a stupid damn movie that would have pushed anyone to the brink of throwing fireballs.
“You okay from here?” Vali asked as the elevator dinged on our floor.
“For sure,” I promised him. “Thank you. That... that was needed. Try not to get caught, okay?”
He grinned and brushed a light kiss across my lips, sending electric bolts shooting through me at the contact. “I won’t, Regina mea. I’ll be quick too, but Austin is still in the room and Caleb surely won’t be too much longer.”
Nodding, I stepped from the elevator and let the doors close behind me. Vali was heading up to the roof to stretch his wings. He’d promised me he wouldn’t try flying anywhere, seeing as we were in the middle of a damn city so a dragon taking off from the Four Seasons rooftop would bound to be noticed. He just said he needed to shift and shake them out a bit.
Not that I’d understand, given that I hadn’t shifted at all yet. The best I had managed was some scales on my skin. That was it.
“I’m back!” I called out, as I let myself into the suite and closed the door behind me.
“Hey,” Caleb popped up from freaking nowhere and almost made me scream with fright.
“Dude,” I snapped.”You almost gave me a heart attack! What gives? And how come you’re back so early?”
Caleb shifted awkwardly, and I took note of his hands clenching and unclenching by his sides. “Uh, I think I’m done with lessons.”
This made me pause as I was moving past him and into the sitting area.
“Seriously?” I spun to face him with a grin on my face. He nodded, and I threw my arms around his neck in excitement. “Caleb, that’s fantastic! I am so proud of you!”
“Um, yeah,” he replied, not looking anywhere near as elated as I thought he would have. “So, I had a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about.”
He nodded to me to take a seat on the couch where Austin was already reclining with his tiger familiar. Sitting on the other end of the couch, I leaned over and scratched Tyson behind the ears where I knew he liked it.
“Hey Princess,” Austin snarked. “Got that temper under wraps or do I need to break out the fire extinguisher again?”
Flipping him off, I also shot a small, harmless little flame at him, singeing his arm hairs and making him glare at me. Good. Asshole was making fun of my temper tantrum earlier, so he’d be lucky if I didn’t singe more than just his arm hair.
“Kit, my mentor gave me something for you,” Caleb started, perching on the edge of the coffee table facing us and running a gold chain between his fingers.
“Cool, but why?” I glanced between the twins, feeling like I was missing something. Austin was relaxed, but Caleb was strung tighter than a harp string.
Caleb held the gold chain up to show me the little fox charm hanging from it. “It’s an amulet. A spell. Supposed to help bring you clarity to help with all the chaos of the bonded magic.”