Page 18 of Kin of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #3)

18

My phone rested on the kitchen table next to eight vials of liquid. Four were red and four bluish-purple. They weren’t labeled, but when Rue had brought them by, at the same time requesting a tour of her future home, she’d made sure to identify which were the truth elixirs and which the antidotes for the poison. After sniffing disdainfully only a few times at the half-cleaned apartment—fortunately, after my previous day’s work and the removal of the stained and odiferous furniture, it didn’t look or smell that bad—she’d departed, looking cheerful.

With the potions delivered, I had a plan, but each time I reached for my phone, sweat broke out on my palms and I paused. What if this didn’t work? I wasn’t a thespian.

“I only have to fool Augustus,” I told myself. “He’s not that bright.”

I was about to dial his number when a knock at the door startled me. Duncan? No, I sensed Jasmine.

Worried something had happened to Mom, I hurried to answer.

This time, Jasmine wasn’t in her wolf form and noshing a rabbit on my threshold. She stood in fitted exercise pants and a midriff shirt that left a couple of inches of her abdomen showing.

“Are you… on your way to yoga?” I wished something innocuous had brought her by and she’d only popped in because she was in the neighborhood.

“Zumba, actually. But I stopped by to tell you I talked to Aunt Martina, and she did, at Augustus’s request, make bacon dipped in chocolate. She said she didn’t see him do anything to it but, when I pressed her, she admitted he’d been alone in the kitchen when someone had rung her doorbell. She also said it had been weird that Augustus had made the request because he never had before. Apparently, he told her it was a gift , but he’s not known for giving gifts.”

“I’ll bet he’s not.” I nodded to her. “Thanks for letting me know.”

Jasmine looked around.

“Is there something else?” I wondered why she hadn’t called to deliver that information.

“I thought if I saw that guy—your intern, right?—I’d ask him where he got that mocha. It was so good.”

“Yes, Bolin is my intern, and I’m sure he would be delighted to tell you.” I glanced at the time on my phone. “He should still be here. If you saw the SUV in a bubble out front, he’s here.”

“That’s his car?”

“Yup.”

“What’s the weird bubble for? It didn’t look antitheft. I could pop it easily.” Jasmine crooked her index finger and made a claw-poking motion.

“It’s to deter bird poop. Or… I guess more to stop the droppings from reaching the paint. From what I’ve seen of the bubble, it’s as much of a target as the SUV.”

“That’s weird. I guess the staff spots are under a bunch of trees. ”

“Trees that are near bird feeders, yes. I have some tenants that will put food out for anything furred or feathered. I’m surprised nobody threw a pound of frozen ground beef at you when you sauntered through as a wolf.”

Jasmine blinked a few times at the imagery. “My instincts told me to avoid humans on my way here.”

“Because you didn’t know about the wildlife-feeding tenants.”

“I might come back for venison.”

“Do you want me to put up a memo on the community board?”

“No, I prefer to hunt my own food. Anyway, I might see if I can find that guy—Bolin—before I leave.”

“He’ll be delighted to talk to you.”

And her bare midriff.

“What are you going to do about Augustus? If you’re going to strangle him, I’d like to watch.”

“I have a plan to get a confession out of him.”

I remembered that I’d envisioned Jasmine recording it from nearby. Would she be game for that?

“Strangling him might accomplish that,” she said.

“His neck is too thick for me to get my hands around.”

Not to mention that Augustus would kick my ass if I faced off against him while we were in human form. As a wolf, I was his match, but as a man… he could probably crush me by sitting on me.

“Do you want help?”

“With the strangulation?”

Jasmine laughed. “With your plan. When I was over at his house, he called my dad a dweeb. I don’t know why he thinks I’m on his side.”

“Because he’s an idiot with the persuasive power of a blobfish.”

“Dad is a dweeb, but only my mom, my sister, and I get to call him that. And only in a lovingly teasing kind of way.”

“I actually could use some help. ”

It was nice of her to volunteer.

“I’m going to try to arrange a meeting with him to enact my plan,” I added. “I could use a videographer.”

“I can do that. Just let me know when you find out a time. I’m not doing anything after my class tonight.”

“I’ll call if this works out. Thanks.”

Jasmine waved and departed. Alone again, I fortified myself with a square of dark chocolate, then pulled up a recording app on my phone. I’d had to sift through a lot of programs to find one that didn’t announce to the person on the receiving end that the call was being recorded. Once it was running, I dialed the phone.

Augustus answered so promptly that I wondered if he’d expected my call.

Summoning all the acting power I had, I yelled, “You poisoned him, you asshole!”

It wasn’t as hard as I thought to sound angry. I was angry and tired of dealing with relatives who couldn’t mind their own business and had decided to hate me because of my personal choices, choices that had nothing to do with them.

“Is he dead?” Augustus asked without passion.

“You know he’s not. Not yet. It acts slowly, doesn’t it?”

“Are you recording this?”

“Yes, and I’ve got the cops standing right next to me listening to you on speaker phone.”

Augustus snorted. “That’s a lie. They don’t give a shit about our kind. If they believe we exist at all.”

“Duncan doesn’t have anything to do with your feud with me. You had no right to try to assassinate him.”

“He’s been interfering with our feud , as you call it, since day one. What he sees in you and why he bothers, I can’t guess.”

“I’m a good lay, asshole.”

“You must be.”

“Is there an antidote? ”

Augustus didn’t answer. Maybe he hadn’t expected that question. Maybe he had no idea.

“ Is there?” I yelled, as if I was losing it. I took an audible deep breath. “A witch I talked to who knows about poisons said there might be.”

“Yes.” Augustus sounded like he’d decided that on the spot. With a croon in his voice, he added, “How much is it worth to you?”

“I can’t let him die. He never should have been involved.”

“Maybe you should have thought about that before bringing him into pack territory.”

“Do you have the antidote? What do you want for it?”

“What are you offering?” Augustus asked softly, smugly. Like he was baiting a trap and luring me in, and we both knew it.

“What do you want? Me dead?”

“To be honest, I’m more partial to the idea of him dead. You won’t be a problem to deal with if he’s not around. How the hell did he become a bipedfuris anyway?”

I wanted to say I’d been in the process of kicking his ass when we’d been fighting one-on-one, so I had to be more of a problem than he thought. But insults weren’t going to get me what I wanted.

“Killing him isn’t acceptable,” I said. “Name your price for the antidote.”

“The ivory box.”

I didn’t have to manufacture a growl. I’d known he wanted that.

“ And your mother’s medallion after she passes.”

“You don’t want much, do you?”

“Neither of those things should be yours anyway.”

“They’re not yours either.”

“Nope, but I’m going to take them. Just like I’m going to take the pack. ”

Hell, maybe he would give me enough to hand the arbiter without an in-person video recording. But I needed more than this. His ambition to take over the pack wasn’t a secret. Mom had already talked about it. Everyone probably knew about it. I needed more out of him, especially since the pack would consider me, the female who’d disappeared for decades, an unreliable witness.

What I wanted and believed would work to sway the elders was Augustus admitting he was acting like a mafia boss out there and making a bad name for the Savagers. And I wanted it in a video confessional that I could show to everyone.

“You’ll have to talk to my mom if you want the medallion,” I said, “but I agree to trade the wolf case for the antidote.”

“I want the case and for you to promise to hand over the medallion to me once your mother passes. She’s not going to give it to me. We already know that.”

“I thought you wanted it for your wife, not yourself. It’s for female werewolves, you know.”

“I’m getting it for her. I’m a good husband.”

“Uh-huh.” I hadn’t seen his wife during any of our confrontations, which made me wonder how much time they actually spent together. Hadn’t Mom said they were separated? Maybe his wife had learned after marrying him what a douchebag he was. “I need the antidote right away. Where do you want to do the exchange? Someplace neutral.”

“Come to my house tonight.”

“That’s not neutral . I want to meet at a park.”

“My house is where the antidote is.”

“You don’t have pockets ?”

“The vials are big.”

Yeah, right.

“If you want the antidote,” he continued, “you’ll come here. Eight p.m.”

I ground my teeth, but if I argued too much, Augustus might suspect Duncan wasn’t in that bad of a state. If I did anything but give in to his demands, it would be suspicious.

“I need the antidote right away,” I said, putting a desperate hitch in my voice.

“Tonight is soon enough,” Augustus said firmly. “That poison takes a couple of days to kill. Besides, I’m having a little gathering tonight, and I have to get the place ready.”

“You’re afraid to meet me alone?”

“I don’t know what schemes you’re concocting.”

“ You’re the one who poisoned my friend, and you accuse me of scheming?” My palms were so damp my phone almost slipped out of my grip. I was scheming my brains out.

“Bring the case tonight. Eight p.m. If you don’t have it with you, you’re not getting past security.”

“What, have you got a castle with an alligator-filled moat?”

“Something like that.”

I remembered the magical defenses at my mom’s place—and my painful realization that he’d been behind them, or he’d at least colluded with whoever had installed them. That same person—probably another of my cousins—might have littered the grounds of his lake house with them.

“I’ll have the case,” I said. “You just make sure you have the antidote.”

“I do, but if you bring the bipedfuris, you’re also not getting in.”

“I need to give him the antidote as soon as I get it.”

“You’re not getting in with him. I’ll be at the gate to check in person.”

“Fine,” I growled.

“And I have magical devices that will let me know if someone with old-world werewolf blood tries to sneak in.”

“He’s not sneaking anywhere. You poisoned him. He can barely get out of bed. ”

“What a shame. Deal’s off if you bring him.” Augustus hung up.

I stopped the recording and lowered the phone. “Part One of my plan is complete.”

Too bad I hadn’t been able to get him to agree to meet on neutral territory. I worried this wouldn’t go well.