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T he medics call the game and begin clearing out the arena of fans and reporters alike. Fran and Willa left with the dark witch, taking her to the cells below the townhouse for questioning.

After the incident with Leera and the rink’s security during the game that I took that nasty hit from Khaos, I got with my co-owner and restricted security to be staffed by shifters or paranormal beings. It’s important to me that the people relatively in charge around us are part of our world and don’t have to be left in the dark. This situation being a prime fucking example.

With the stands cleared of everyone but Leera and the players who have since changed out of our skates and uniforms, the Crescents head coach and Coach engage in an animated discussion about what the actual fuck happened here. Nodding to Benny, Stay with Leera, I make my way to the coaches. “I’m assuming neither of you knows what happened here tonight?”

They both scowl and turn their attention to me.

“I’ll take that as a no. All I know, so far, is that a dark witch was here and had your team”—I lock eyes with the Crescents coach—“under some kind of spell.”

He jabs his finger in my direction and opens his mouth to say something that would probably piss me off, so I don’t offer him the opportunity, speaking over his train of thought.

“Leera’s guard and white-witch professor subdued the witch and have taken her to our cells for us to get the answers we need. As soon as I have more information, I’ll report back,” I finish, looking around the space knowing everyone heard me and offering them the opportunity to speak their concerns.

A satisfied smile spreads across my face, and all the men in the room nod, including the Crescents players, to the irritation of their coach.

Leera tries not to smile, shaking her head at me as I approach her. “What?” I ask dramatically, my arms held wide, awaiting her embrace.

She leans into me, still shaking her head. “You’re incorrigible. You know that?”

“I don’t care what I am as long as it keeps you smiling like that,” I beam at her, running my thumb along her plump bottom lip.

“All right! Time to go,” Benny pipes up, snapping the quickly escalating sexual tension. Leera shakes the lustful thoughts from her mind and smiles bashfully.

Back at home, convincing Leera to remain upstairs while we go down to get information from the witch is no simple task. Thankfully, Runa was able to convince her that they needed some girl time before we leave for Sabbax. I'm also fairly certain Leera was very aware that we were teaming up against her to keep her out of harm's way, but she smiled and went along with it.

From the garage, the elevator doesn't go down to protect the privacy and security of what we have only seldom had to keep below the townhouse. There are two doors on the other side of the garage. One is the door to the stairs that lead up to the main level in case of emergency, the electricity is out, or if I just don't feel like taking the elevator up. The other door leads to what looks like a utility closet full of salt, shovels, maintenance fluids, and other boxes of random shit that's collected in there, but if you shut the door completely once inside, there is a hidden panel door in the wall. Pressing on the right side of the door, the digital pin-pad illuminates, and I key in the passcode that only my men and I have knowledge of, and, well, now Fran.

The first flight of stairs takes you down to an area used mostly for storage, though we went through and purged a ton of nonsense out of it during Slate's spring-cleaning meltdown last April. Now it looks more like a weird doomsday bunker with metal shelves lining two walls with some supplies and storage containers.

The second flight of stairs leads to the area where we have a handful of small cells with thick iron bars. Luckily, we haven't had much of a need for them over the years, but they have come in handy on a few occasions. One of those occasions being a time that the twins had managed to piss Benny and Slate off to the point that they'd locked them in here for a weekend.

Standing outside the very first cell are Fran and Willa. Fran's watching the dark witch with her arms crossed over her chest. Willa is scowling, clearly disappointed with the witch.

Dark witches aren't born as such, unless you consider the ones that are raised by dark witches. It's a conscious decision that they make to practice dark magic and to use their powers for evil purposes. Doing so is what divides the white and dark witches, going against their most fundamental edict. It is written into the laws of Sabbax that any witch who chooses to practice dark magic is stripped of any titles or possessions they may hold in Sabbax and are banned from their homeland, never to return.

Choosing to practice dark magic isn't a phase or rebellion. It's not something they can come back from. Once their soul is tainted with the use of dark magic, it can never be mended or forgiven. This results in the dark witches sneaking into other realms. Earth’s human realm happens to be the easiest one for them to habituate.

The problem with Sabbax's law is that when they ban these pains-in-my-ass, the rest of us have to deal with them. Instead of kicking them out like a petulant child, they should be doing something about the problem, not handing it off to the next person.

Willa offers us a strained smile as we file into the small space. Benny hot on my heels, Andrei just behind him, Dolos smirking, Eris scowling, and Slate bringing up the rear.

“Anything?” I bark, relishing in the barely perceptible flinch from the bitch in the cell.

The women shake their heads.

“Are you going to answer our questions cooperatively? I really don't have the patience for the whole song and dance,” I say, rubbing the muscles between my eyebrows. Being away from Leera makes my entire body coil tighter and strains every nerve ending in my being.

The witch laughs and prepares for what I expect is her well-rehearsed monologue that I don't have the time or energy for. Raising my hand, I interject, “I'm gonna stop you right there. I just wanted to grant you the opportunity to get through this with some of whatever sanity you have left.”

I turn to each person standing around me. “Fran, you are dismissed unless you'd like to participate further. Willa, can you make sure she doesn't pull any magic shit on them?”

They both nod.

“Eris, I would have allowed you to take the lead on this, but as you've chosen to keep your head firmly planted up your ass, your services are also not needed.”

He mumbles a few curses before stomping back up the stairs without a fight.

“Slate and Dolos, she's all yours. Get us whatever information you are able.”

Dolos dramatically cracks his knuckles. “You got it, Boss. Who's ready to party?!” he hollers, echoing in the small space.

Slate rolls his eyes before opening up his laptop and setting it to the side. “We've got it from here,” he states firmly.

Turning to head back up the stairs and towards the reason for my existence, I let Benny and Andrei know they can sit in if they'd like, but it's not required. The six of us work like a well-oiled machine—or at least all six of us used to. It's strange not being able to rely on one of the people I've always trusted most.

We haven't had a lot of our old style of action in quite some time, so I imagine Benny is likely chomping at the bit to be involved.

“Don't forget to educate her that if we have to, we'll take her to the prison in Sabbax when we holiday in the far to near future,” I toss over my shoulder as I continue to climb the stairs.