Page 19

Chapter Ten

ETHAN

I burst into my flat and follow the scent of Ayo’s pain straight to the living room, my wolf absolutely frantic to get to him. Doc P is with Ayo, thank goodness, along with a frowning human with auburn hair who I don’t recall ever seeing before.

I’m guessing the human is the person Ayo said scared away his attackers, but I’ll deal with him later. My first priority is Ayo.

I immediately sit next to Ayo on the sofa, making sure not to get in the way of whatever Doc P is doing, and carefully put my arm around my sorcerer. He sags against me, one hand holding a bag of frozen peas against his jaw.

“You came,” he croaks.

“Of course. How are you feeling?” I press a kiss to his temple, unable to help myself. I don’t like how hoarse his voice sounds, but at least my wolf is calmer now that Ayo is in my arms.

“Sore. Scared. But wait, you had that emergency to deal with. Can you even be here? Don’t Raj and Jet need you?”

I take hold of his free hand and thread our fingers together. “It was mostly sorted, but I pulled Kit in to assist them. I’m exactly where I need to be.”

Ayo nods gingerly.

Doc P stands up and puts away a stethoscope I’ve never seen him use before.

Maybe it’s for the human’s benefit? “Good news. You sustained no serious injuries. You might be sore for a few days, and try to limit how much talking you do to allow your throat to heal, but there’s no need to go to hospital.

You were lucky the Detective Inspector came along when he did. ”

A human detective? No wonder Doc P is being careful.

The detective releases a breath. “Thank you, Doctor. I did try to suggest an ambulance, but Mr Muroyi wouldn’t hear of it.”

Doc P’s answering smile is enigmatic. “Some people just don’t like hospitals.”

“With the wait times in A it’s not really this man’s business what Ayo and I have going on. “Detectives don’t usually do much chasing, do they?”

The detective doesn’t look unfit, but there’s a slight roundness to his stomach that speaks to more of a desk job.

“You’d be surprised. Listen, I’ve tried to persuade your boyfriend to file a report. I’m not sure there’s much anyone could do, what with the gang wearing masks, gloves, and no identifiable clothing, but I don’t like the idea of gangs roaming around and assaulting people in broad daylight.”

If Ayo is refusing to file a report with the human police, which it sounds like he is, then his attackers were likely supes.

“Neither do I, Detective Inspector, but my priority is Ayo’s safety and happiness. If reporting this won’t get us any closer to identifying the attackers, I won’t make him relive it.”

The detective glances at the doorway behind me, then gives me a grim smile before pulling out a business card and handing it to me. “If he changes his mind, let me know. I’ll provide a witness statement.”

“Thank you.” I hesitate, then pull out my wallet and hand over a business card of my own.

“Soldati Security?” He looks up, his green eyes penetrating.

“I appreciate you saving him from worse. If you ever need more help than your colleagues can provide, call me. We’re former SAS.”

He taps the card against his palm, then pockets it. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

After he leaves and I hear him enter the lift, I head back to Ayo, who’s talking to someone on his phone.

“Thanks, Ms. Blake. I’ll be in touch in the next few days to rearrange.

” He hangs up and grimaces at the bag of frozen peas melting next to him on the sofa.

Before I can tell him not to worry about them, he tosses them to me, wincing with the movement.

“Can you please get me the green drink from the fridge?”

I don’t know who Ms. Blake is or why Ayo felt the need to call her while injured, but right now I’m more concerned with finding out exactly what happened to him. I put the peas back in the freezer, then open the fridge and retrieve a sludgy green concoction that definitely doesn’t belong there.

I wrinkle my nose at the awful smell. “What the fuck is this?”

Ayo grimaces when I hand it to him. “Tonic from Doc P. He said it was a health smoothie, but it’s actually a magical remedy that will take away the pain.” He gulps the whole thing down until the little glass bottle is empty, then pulls a face. “Bro, that’s nasty.”

“Better?” He nods as I sit next to him and pull him gently back into my arms. “Now, tell me exactly what happened.”

Ayo snuggles in and proceeds to tell me how he was cornered in an alley by four supes, his voice already recovering thanks to the tonic. My wolf growls when he gets to the part about the cat shifter punching through his shield.

Ayo is a powerful magic-user. No way should a shifter be able to do something like that.

“Could one of them have been the shifter who attacked you and Irving outside the club? Just in human form?”

Ayo immediately shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

When I got the call that Ayo had been hurt, my first instinct was to pull everyone off what they were doing to send them hunting, but then Ayo told me he’d been beaten up a little but was mostly fine, so in the end I only sent Skye and Cal.

Now I’m glad I tempered my reaction. I agree with Ayo that this doesn’t sound like the same attacker at all. Even in human form, the shifters could have used claws or the vampire their fangs, but it sounds like they didn’t even try.

“From everything you’ve described, this feels more like a warning,” I say.

Ayo stiffens and rubs at a patch of dirt on the knee of his trousers.

“Hey, we won’t let anything happen to you.” I rub his arm soothingly. “I have an entire highly-trained security team at my disposal.”

We can protect Ayo, but the question is who’s warning us and why?

Could it be the coven, warning us off bidding for the BSG contract?

Ayo is almost universally well-liked, so I can’t see them hurting one of their own just on the off chance we find the murderer before they do.

They’d be far more likely to go after a different member of my team.

Before I can figure it out, my phone rings and I reluctantly release Ayo to accept the call from Cal. “Tell me you have good news.”

“ Sorry, boss; they split up. We think all four of them got into vehicles. One bus, two different trams, and a car, maybe an Uber. They were too far ahead for us to locate once we lost their scents. ”

“Fuck.” Not surprising, but still irritating as hell. “All right, send Skye to follow Detective Inspector Idris Gough for a bit. He’s human and found Ayo, so I want to make sure he doesn’t suspect anything.”

“ Will do. Where do you want me? ”

I look over at the very tense sorcerer now pacing my kitchen. Often, protecting a person gets infinitely easier if you teach them how to protect themselves.

“The training room in the basement,” I say to Cal. “I’m going to see if I can get a late booking.”

“ On my way. ”

One of the reasons I chose to have our office and my flat in this particular building is the martial arts training room in the basement, bookable for anyone who wants to use it.

Fortunately, this late on a Monday night it’s empty and has no more bookings until tomorrow.

There’s a faint smell of stale sweat coming from the thin mats covering the floor, but it’s nothing Cal and I can’t ignore.

Ayo willingly came down here with me when I asked him to, but he’s now looking wary and his scent is cautious. “What’s going on?”

“Could you please ward the room?”

“Um… sure. To what level? Silencing?”

“We’ll need more than that. I don’t want anyone to be able to get in at all, and we can’t have any sounds, smells, or spells leaking out.”

Ayo’s eyes widen and Cal’s scent, which is almost always completely neutral, holds a hint of curiosity.

It only takes a few minutes for Ayo to finish working, which is insane. A ward like I just asked for would take most magic-users hours to complete, if they even had the capability. It convinces me more than ever that what we’re about to do is very necessary.

“Done.” Ayo looks up at me, trusting and ready. Fuck, this man.

“Thank you. Now we’re going to do some training.”

“You and Cal?” His eyes light up with excitement.

“Not exactly. You mentioned that both times you were attacked your go-to was a shield spell. While that’s an excellent first step, it shouldn’t be your only defence, for the reasons you’ve already discovered—if it fails, you’re vulnerable.”

“Whoa, hold on, you’re going to train me?

How? I’ve already practised all kinds of spells for my enforcer test, and I messed up under pressure.

Neither of you are magic-users. No offence.

” Ayo bites his lower lip in a very distracting way, but this is too important for me to get sidetracked by how much I want to kiss him.

“You’re right, we’re not. But we are trained in all kinds of situations. Cal is our close-quarters combat specialist. He’s exceptional at finding a person’s strengths and making them work for them. He’ll be working with you to best utilise the magic you already know.”

Cal’s mouth quirks up into something approximating a smile, which is practically a grin for the stoic vampire.

Ayo looks at Cal. “You think you can help me?”