“Oh.” Her arms fell to her sides and she relaxed. “Is that all?”
“That’s all,” I said, glad she seemed more at ease. If she’d been sure I was going to use her blood for the spell, that would explain some of her reluctance. Blood could be used for a lot of spells, most of them pretty nasty. And every witch I knew was extremely wary of letting their blood get into anyone’s hands, much less a fellow witch.
The door opened and Harrison walked in with a ceramic mortar and pestle.
“Thank you,” I said as he handed it to me.
“No problem, Phoebe.” He winked and strode back out. Harrison had been one of Willow’s bodyguards at one time. He’d proven to be a decent guy even though he worked for Allcot.
I walked over to Bandu and met his tired gaze. “This isn’t going to feel good.”
“I didn’t expect it would,” he rasped.
“There’s one thing I don’t get.” I tapped his chest right over his heart. “If you have such a hard-on for justice, why did you put your entire pack in danger? Why expose most of them to kidnapping and attempted murder charges? That holier-than-thou crap is really tired, Leader Bandu.”
He sucked in a deep breath and glanced away, no longer willing to meet my eyes.
“Pathetic.” Then, without warning, I jabbed my uncursed blade into his shoulder and twisted, sat down on the tile floor, and gestured for Imogen to join me.
He howled with pain and bucked, trying to jerk away from the knife, but it was no use. His wrists and ankles were bound. He wasn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
Imogen handed me the mortar without comment, and I held it up to the wound to collect his blood. When the trickle slowed, I twisted the knife harder and got a perverse pleasure in listening to his agony. Good—let him suffer.
Footsteps caught my attention, and as I was yanking the tip of the knife out of Bandu’s flesh, Leo appeared in front of the shifter leader. There were tears standing in his innocent eyes as he clenched his fists and tightened his jaw. “Why, Bandu? That’s all I want to know. Why?”
The leader slowly closed his eyes, his shame at being called to the carpet by one of his wolves appearing to break him.
“I thought you stood for something. You’re just another liar. A user out to further your agenda,” Leo continued. “You made me party to something that goes against everything I believe in. You make me sick.” Leo started to walk away but then turned abruptly and rammed his fist into the leader’s gut.
Bandu let out a whoosh of air and grunted but never said a word and never looked Leo in the eye.
When Leo returned to his spot in our makeshift circle, Link sat next to him and rested his big wolf head on Leo’s knee. Leo glanced down at him and smiled. “Thanks, wolf. I needed that.”
“He can stay silent, but he can’t keep his secrets.” I sprinkled a bit of the memory herbs into the mortar and sat down on the floor across from Imogen. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
I grabbed the pestle and mixed the herbs with Bandu’s blood, then placed it between Imogen and me. Holding my hands out to her, I smiled. “Let’s do this.”
Her hands were warm in mine as I closed my eyes and called up my power. Hers instantly sprang to life, mixing with mine. I started to feel light-headed, almost drugged with the sensation. My skin tingled and my blood hummed.
Euphoria.
“Phoebe?” Her sweet voice filled my senses, only fueling my ecstasy, and when I opened my eyes the room was bright with brilliant white light and everything else had disappeared.
“Hey,” I said.
Her lips curved into a shy smile. “Hey.”
“This isn’t so bad, is it?” I rubbed my thumbs over the backs of her hands, reveling in our joined energies.
She chuckled. “No, not at all, but…” Imogen glanced around the room, leaned in, and whispered, “But I think we might be putting on a bit of a show.”
“We are?” I blinked. I saw nothing but Imogen and the brilliant white light. It was as if everyone had faded away.
“Yes, and they’re getting a little impatient.” She cut a sideways glance to where Pandora had been standing. “Allcot said we can get a room later.”
I laughed. What was happening didn’t have anything to do with romance. It was… an intoxicating drug that took me out of the present and into a place I’d be happy to never leave. Except… Willow and Talisen needed me.
“Right,” I said, focusing on her, then the mortar between us. “Let’s finish the memory spell.”
She nodded. I let go of one of her hands and dipped my fingers into Bandu’s blood. Immediately the blood turned to a fine mist and rose up around us, obscuring her face from my view.
Then the scene opened up, revealing the memories for the entire room to see.
For me it was like I was plunged into an alternate reality and was standing off to the side as I watched Allcot and Pandora hand over a handful of drug bottles to Imogen. The memory was a surprise. I shouldn’t have been in Imogen’s memory, but I supposed our connection had been so strong that my curiosity about her had brought me to her memories first.
The three of them were in Allcot’s office at the Red Door. Pandora was her usual sleek, sexy self, hanging on Allcot’s arm while he peered at the healer. “These should help within the week. But you’ll need to be available for the next month so the researcher can study your reaction.”
“Can I work?” she asked, her voice heavy with fatigue. She had dark smudges under her eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
“Yes. Just set up a schedule with the head of research. Some nights you’ll have to stay here as your sleep patterns will be monitored.”
“All right.” Imogen stuffed unmarked pill bottles into her bag and turned to go.
“We’ll help you kick this curse, Imogen. Don’t worry. You’ll be back to seeing patients in no time.”
The scene shifted and it was another day. Imogen was in Allcot’s office, beaming and shaking his hand. “I can’t thank you enough, Eadric. I thought I’d never see the day I could practice healing again. Your drugs brought me back.”
He nodded and made her sign a document that said she would be available for further testing until the drug was approved by the government.
Holy shit. That’s why Imogen owed them. They’d found a drug to help kick a curse that she hadn’t been able to heal herself—the kiss of death for a healer. If she was infected with a random curse that was zapping all her strength, she couldn’t see patients and her livelihood would be threatened. The drugs must’ve worked, because the Imogen I knew was powerful and full of light.
And Allcot was responsible for bringing her back to life. Of course, now she owed them that life, which was no doubt why she was in her pajamas in their mansion in the middle of the night. They either had her on staff or were doing more testing.
Damn Allcot. Him and his drug company. There was no denying he was doing something great for the community with miracle drugs, but he was also a manipulative bastard. And that was the rub. He was neither all good nor all bad. The only question was did his good outweigh the bad?
Sitting on the floor in Allcot’s house, basking in Imogen’s beautiful power while we extracted a memory we needed to save Willow and Talisen, I was saying yes. Yes, his good outweighed his bad.
The scene shifted again, and this time I was where I was supposed to be—in the purple Gothic house where Bandu had held Pandora.
The pack leader strode through the parlor on the main floor and into a library filled ceiling to floor with old leather-bound books.
“Is it done?” The raspy voice of the sorceress came from the corner of the room.