Page 16 of Relics of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #2)

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Duncan opened the door before I reached it, revealing Bolin standing outside with two police officers, a man and a woman. Their guns weren’t drawn, but my stomach knotted as concern about everything coming out tangled within me.

What if they demanded to see tonight’s footage from the security cameras? Before I had a chance to delete it? What if my story was so pathetic that they saw right through it?

I hated the situation and that it would force me to lie. I tried to be an honorable person, damn it.

Instead of waiting for them to start the questions, Duncan ambled out the door. “I need to check on my van. I heard there was a ruckus in the parking lot.”

The male officer reached for him, took note of his nudity, and reconsidered. The female eyed his nudity, including his lower regions, and then looked frankly at me.

“I guess we know what the property manager was up to at the time,” she told her partner.

I grimaced. Someone must have pointed out that I lived here and wondered why I hadn’t made an appearance yet.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I can change and come out if that’s what you need.”

Duncan continued past them.

“Wait, sir.” The female officer stepped after him, then gripped his arm when he didn’t stop. “The tenants said you’ve been hanging out in your van in the parking lot. We need to question you.”

“Hanging out?” Duncan turned to face her.

To my senses, he exuded power, and I thought of the story he’d just told me. I assumed a mundane human couldn’t feel his magic, but the officer let go, uncertainty in her eyes. She took a step back and glanced at her partner.

“I’ve been courting my lady.” Duncan tilted his head toward me.

“My lady,” the woman mouthed, much as I had when he’d first used the term.

“He’s from Europe,” I said, as if that might be a suitable explanation for his eccentricities.

No, he was from a scientist’s laboratory, if that tale was true.

Bolin was standing back, pointedly not looking at Duncan as he waited. When our gazes met, he dug something out of his pocket to hand to me. My phone from the office. He’d probably tried to call me before leading the police to my apartment. My nudity-filled apartment.

“I need to check on a couple of things,” Duncan told the police while giving me a significant look that I couldn’t interpret. What did he want to check on? A minute earlier, he hadn’t seemed to have anything pressing on his mind—anything except me . “If you have questions for me later, I won’t leave the premises.”

The female officer looked toward her partner again.

“ I’m not grabbing him,” the man said.

“We’ll talk to him later.” The furrow to the female officer’s brow suggested she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t handcuffed Duncan and demanded answers immediately. Maybe she had sensed his power, at least on a subliminal level, and her subconscious mind had decided it would be better not to start something with him.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t decided the same about me. Wearing no-nonsense expressions, they turned to face me. The male officer lifted a tablet open to a report.

“I didn’t see what happened out there,” Bolin told me, “but I informed them that one of the dead is the man who mugged me a few days ago and that there’s a police report on the incident on file.” The way he held my gaze made it seem like he was sending a silent message along with those words. Saying he had seen some of what happened? But that he was trying not to get me in trouble?

“And you think you’re the reason they came back?” the female officer asked Bolin.

“I suppose it’s possible.”

I shook my head, not wanting Bolin to lie, even if it was to help me.

“Do you have any idea why they’d want you?” she asked, not looking at me.

“No. I mean, unless they wanted to kidnap me and ransom me or something. My parents own this place and numerous other large multifamily properties. They’ve done well for themselves.”

“Huh.” The male officer tapped notes into his tablet.

I hesitated, torn between wanting to protect Bolin and realizing his explanation might seem plausible to the police, at least as a reason why over-muscled thugs had shown up. Nothing I could say would explain the wolf attack, not without confessing to everything.

“We’ll look into that.” The male officer lowered his tablet, and the pair’s focus turned back to me. “Were you here with… Shit, we didn’t get his name. That guy. Were you with him the whole time? According to witnesses, there was shooting and some kind of huge dog fight. No, a dog attack . There are dead men all over the parking lot out there, their throats torn out.”

“ Dogs weren’t responsible for that,” the woman said grimly.

“Wild animals, then.” The man held a hand out helplessly.

“I was with Duncan the whole time,” I said.

That, at least, wasn’t a lie. Never mind that we’d been responsible for the torn throats…

“He’s distracting,” I said, though I doubted they would buy sex as a believable reason that we hadn’t heard the commotion.

“I’ll bet.” The woman glanced in the direction he’d gone. “We still need to talk to him. If he’s staying in the parking lot, he might have seen some stuff.”

“He’s been with me for hours,” I said.

True again.

She eyed me. “Hours, huh?”

I nodded firmly.

“You want to get his number on the way out?” the male officer asked her.

She shot him a dirty look, though her cheeks also turned pink. “I just want answers to our questions. For the record.”

“Of course.”

The officers asked me if I’d spotted anyone unusual on the premises that day, if there’d been suspicious activity recently, or if any of the tenants had been acting oddly lately.

“You’ve worked here twenty years?” the man asked to finish off the questions.

“More than. Nothing like this has happened before.” I spread my arms in what I hoped was the picture of innocence.

If nothing else, it was another true statement. I’d managed more of them than I’d expected, mostly because the police hadn’t asked any questions that implicated me . Even if it had been somewhat mortifying to have Duncan naked in my apartment when they’d arrived, it was probably saving my ass. Sex did apparently seem like a reasonable alibi. Not that police who knew nothing about werewolves and the paranormal world would have a reason to think a forty-five-year-old woman would have something to do with throats being ripped out…

“All right. We’re going to speak with some more of the tenants and see if anyone saw more than big dogs attacking and men driving in and shooting at them.” The female officer shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe any of this.

“Okay,” I said.

“You come with us.” The man pointed at Bolin. “I want to hear more about your family and why someone might be after you.”

Bolin grimaced—he probably didn’t care to lie either—but he didn’t object. He did, however, give me a long look over his shoulder as he trailed them back out to the parking lot.

I rubbed my face. Later, I was going to have to sit down with him for a private chat. After all that had happened, I owed him an explanation. And, after all that had happened, he might believe it.

Though the police hadn’t requested it, I washed myself, changed into a new set of clothes, and headed to the parking lot. Ambulances had arrived, as well as more police cars, and their flashing lights threw the entire front of the complex into reds and yellows. Paramedics were putting the bodies onto gurneys and wheeling them to the ambulances, though I knew without a doubt that they would go to the morgue, not the emergency room.

Would there be autopsies? Would someone figure out that strange alchemical substances had coursed through their veins? I had no idea.

I spotted Duncan darting out of the shadows behind a tree and toward the black Tesla that had crashed into a cedar tree. He’d found a moment to put on clothes, including a black leather jacket, the pockets bulging with who knew what. There was just enough light to make out a credit card or maybe a hotel key card in his hand.

Confused, I walked across the lawn toward him. He looked like he was trying to avoid notice, so I also stuck to the shadows. A police car idled not far from that Tesla, but the driver and passenger had gotten out and joined their colleagues. The pair of officers who’d questioned me were on the far side of the parking lot; they’d been mobbed by tenants who were all trying to speak at once and share what they’d seen.

Trusting they were suitably distracted, I trotted over to join Duncan. He’d reached the Tesla, its matte-black paint swallowing the flashing lights instead of reflecting them, and was trying to peer through the driver-side window. Despite the tint, a glow was visible inside, the light from the big rectangular display on the dash.

“The doors on those lock automatically, I think,” I said when I reached him. The windows that had earlier been down enough to allow rifles to fire through them had rolled up of their own accord.

I was surprised the display was on when there wasn’t anyone inside. Or was there? I also tried to see through the window.

“They do.” Duncan held up the card, waving it around the window. “I sneaked over to the driver before they picked up the body. He had this in his pocket. I thought he might.” Duncan moved the card to the frame between the front and back door, and the locks released with a soft clunk . “Ah, that’s the spot. I’ve only ever test-driven one, and it was the funky truck.”

“I don’t think you could fit all your equipment in that.”

“Nope. I’ve got to stick to my van.” Duncan opened the door, and eased into the driver’s seat. “Watch out for me, will you?” He nodded toward where the police were trying to calm down the exuberant witnesses.

“Yeah, but you might not want to get your fingerprints on anything.”

He’d been about to touch the glowing display and paused, his index finger dangling in the air. But he shook his head and tapped it. “My fingerprints aren’t in a database anywhere.”

“Off the grid, are you?”

“You know why.” He smiled when he met my eyes, as if pleased we now shared his secret.

For some reason, that touched me. I was glad he didn’t regret telling me his story.

He tapped a navigation bar on the display while I watched the police to make sure they didn’t run over, outraged that we were messing with the crime scene. Since the crime scene sprawled all over the parking lot and front lawn, it was a lot for them to monitor, and nobody had noticed us in the car.

“If they were smart, they wouldn’t have ever inputted their home base,” Duncan murmured as he scrolled, “but they probably didn’t expect their car to crash and be invaded, so maybe…”

I glanced over and caught Sylvan Serenity Housing at the top of the recent destinations. Other recents included a hardware store, a gun range, a charging station, and… I leaned in and squinted even as Duncan muttered a soft and triumphant, “Hah.”

“TBL Luxury Perfumes and Potions?” I read.

The other stops made sense—they’d wanted guns and rope to use on me , presumably—but why that one? Given that TBL Luxury Perfumes and Potions was in the GPS as the name of a public store, I didn’t assume it had anything to do with the paranormal, not real potions. Unless that was done on the side.

“That didn’t come up when I was looking for farms, but I’ll bet they have lavender products.” Duncan tapped the destination, and a route popped up on the map. It was up north, near Arlington. “I should have known to expand my search beyond farms, especially considering, as you pointed out, we’re past the season that any flowers would be blooming.”

“Well, those guys didn’t look like the perfume types, so not guessing that was understandable.”

“I don’t think they were wearing any, as the whiffs I kept catching weren’t that strong, but if they worked there and passed in and out of the building, that could account for the scent.”

“Why would thugs specializing in stealing and kidnapping work at a perfume and potion store?”

Duncan had tapped in the name on his phone and said, “It looks like the factory where they make the stuff, not only a store.”

“Oh, well, if they work at a perfume factory , that makes much more sense.”

Duncan gazed blandly at me. “Your snark is more appealing when you’re naked.”

“Really.”

He grinned. “Yup.”

“Is everything about me more appealing when I’m naked?”

“Oh yes. I trust the same is true of me.”

I folded my arms over my chest.

“You didn’t enjoy my nudity?” he asked.

“It was all right.”

“I hope to get another opportunity to more thoroughly share its appeal with you.” Duncan leaned over and patted the passenger seat. “Shall we visit this potion shop?”

I stared at him. “In the stolen crashed car of our enemies? After you told the police you’d stay in the area for questioning?”

Duncan leaned forward, looking out the windshield toward the crumpled front of the car still mashed against the cedar. He didn’t glance at the police officers, but they were still distracted, with more and more tenants coming out to surround them.

“The damage doesn’t look that bad,” he said. “I think that’s just the trunk up there. There aren’t any errors on the display, so I doubt the car will explode if we drive it.”

“Oh, would it warn us first before blowing up?”

“I should think so. This is modern technology, after all.”

“I’d be more comfortable in your van.” I didn’t object to riding in electric cars, just electric cars that belonged to other people and had recently been crashed into trees.

“So would I, but that bobby is standing close to it.”

“That what? Is that like a tallywacker?”

Duncan snorted. “No. Don’t you watch any British TV?”

“I’m too busy with work.”

“I believe you. This place seems to come with a lot of issues.” Duncan patted the passenger seat again.

“Most of those issues started after you showed up,” I muttered. “We can take my truck.”

“Do you have money for gas?” He arched his eyebrows.

I hesitated. I did not, but this was an emergency. I could?—

“Look, if the potion place happens to be a front for the mastermind behind the artifact theft, it might be a good idea to drive up in a car they’ll be expecting.”

I wanted to keep arguing, mostly because I didn’t trust the huge mass of batteries that powered the car not to blow up on the freeway, but he had a good point.

“Fine. But if this breaks down, you’re paying for the Uber.”

“Fair.”

After slipping into the car with him, I spotted Bolin. He was looking in our direction, but he didn’t do anything to indicate to the police what we were doing.

“I’m starting to like that kid,” I admitted, though that had been true since he’d used his burgeoning druidic powers to annihilate the mold in one of the apartments.

“He doesn’t miss much,” Duncan said. “I think he’s figured out what we are.”

“As long as he doesn’t tell his parents.”

Duncan looked over at me.

“My employers. He’s their kid. That’s why he’s interning here.”

“Ah.”

Since the police weren’t talking to Bolin at the moment, I grabbed my phone and called him.

“Yes?” he answered in a dry drawl.

“We’ve got a lead on who sent these guys.”

“A lead? Like the navigation back log in the car?”

“Yeah, Duncan found a likely spot that it’s been today.”

“That’s pretty good for a Boomer to think of looking at that,” Bolin offered.

I shot him a scathing look through the windshield as Duncan backed the Tesla away from the tree. “We’re Gen X, not Boomers. I’m almost a Millennial, FYI.”

“He’s got a lot of gray in his hair.”

“It’s silver, and Gen Xers aren’t that young anymore.” I shook my head. Why was I arguing about this? “Thanks for handling the police. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. I think… I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe me anything. I don’t even pay you.”

“My parents don’t either, other than my allowance.”

“The allowance that’s six figures a year?”

He hadn’t told me that, but I had my suspicions. Either that or his parents had bought him that car and paid for the insurance on it. And hadn’t he said he had his own apartment?

“It’s a generous allowance,” Bolin agreed. “But I meant the thugly blond guy who beat the snot out of me. Some kind of wild animal ripped out his throat. I’m not a vengeful person, but I’m going to admit I’m not as horrified to see him dead as some other people might be. The bastard hurled me against a post and smashed my face. I’m lucky I’m the cerebral type and don’t need to make my way in the world as a model.”

“Yeah, your spelling-bee skills are sure to pave the path to a lucrative future.”

“Those aren’t my only skills.”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot you play the violin too.”

“You’re kind of snarky tonight.”

“You called me a freaking Boomer.”

“Touché. But anyway, I’ll take care of this. Like I said, I appreciate that you… or something … made sure that guy won’t go after me again.”

The thug had only gone after Bolin because he’d been carrying the wolf case, but I didn’t point that out. Whatever his reason, I was glad to have him helping out. I wouldn’t have expected someone that young to have the maturity to stand out here and field all the questions and whatever requests the police were making.

“Thanks, Bolin.”

“No problem.” He hung up.

We’d driven away from the apartment complex, so I couldn’t tell if the police had returned to question him. I hoped he would be all right. As I slid my phone into my pocket, my shoulder twinged from the movement, and I grunted softly. The pain wasn’t that bad, but I grunted again when I realized I didn’t have my purse or even my ID with me.

Maybe that was for the best. Then, if we were captured and searched, my belongings couldn’t give me away. Except that probably wouldn’t matter. Whoever had sent the thugs to capture me… already knew who I was.

“You doing okay?” Duncan asked after my grunts.

“I’m fine. A bit sore, but these seats are surprisingly comfortable. And warm.” I wiggled my rump. “Did you turn the butt heaters on?”

“I haven’t poked around to figure out how to do that. The previous guys must have.”

“I’m bemused that those brutes were riding around with soothing heat warming their asses while they were plotting our demise.”

“All humans crave creature comforts. And it was only my demise they were angling for. They wanted you alive for something.” Duncan gave me a significant look as he drove the car onto the on-ramp for the freeway.

“Yeah, I caught that too. It’s probably unwise of me to head up to their headquarters in the very car they sent to snatch me.”

“That might have been an impulsive idea.”

“ You came up with it.”

“I know. I’m the impulsive one. I was worried about the police rounding me up if I lingered, but, now I wish I’d grabbed a few more things from my van.” Duncan touched one of his bulging pockets but didn’t show me what he had in there. Not enough to storm an enemy fortress, I guessed.

“You might have been wise to get out of there,” I said. “They’re probably going to cordon off your suspicious van with caution tape and flashing lights.”

“Suspicious? It’s a perfectly normal camping van, refurbished and improved since its original build in the nineties.”

“A perfectly normal camping van with tires big enough to roll over park benches.”

“And surly werewolves.”

“They did come in handy in that instance.” Technically, I hadn’t rolled over anyone. But knocking whichever of my cousins that had been flying was possibly another reason they didn’t like me. “Maybe the police won’t check it. I don’t know what happens when a bunch of people are slain by wild animals in a suburban apartment complex. The authorities might not have a standard operating procedure for that.”

“The van’s interior is a little quirky, I’ll admit. If they search that, their interest in wanting to question me may intensify.”

“Do you have condemning equipment inside? Stuff more suspicious than magnets and SCUBA gear?”

Duncan hesitated, and I didn’t know if he was taking a mental inventory of the contents or he didn’t want to answer the question.

After a long moment, he admitted, “There are some underwater demolitions.”

“Demolitions? As in bombs ?”

“Incendiary devices with explosive kinetic potential.” He sounded like Bolin giving one of his word origins.

“So, bombs.”

“Yes.”

I should have asked him why he had bombs, especially since he left his van in my parking lot so often—I hoped they were professional-grade and not some unstable homemade version. Instead, influenced by my current predicament, I peered hopefully at his pockets. “Did you bring any along?”

Duncan looked over at me. Wondering if I seriously wanted some?

I didn’t usually long for weapons, but these were trying times.

He slid a hand into one bulging pocket, withdrew a metal sphere with a clip in the top, and offered it to me. By habit, I started to reach for it, like someone accepting a square of chocolate, but I froze.

“Is that…”

“An M67 fragmentation hand grenade, yes. I brought two with me. Just in case.”

I hadn’t truly expected him to have bombs—or grenades—in his pockets, but… who knew what we would face? They might come in handy.

“Uh, that’s all right. I’ve only seen them used on TV. I’d better stick to what’s in my pockets.”

“You brought weapons?”

I pulled out a half-consumed bar of dark chocolate. I’d needed a little fortification before leaving my apartment. It was fancy enough to be in a cardboard container in addition to the foil wrapper inside, so it wasn’t in danger of melting.

“That should make the bad guys quail.” Duncan returned the grenade to his pocket.

“If we fall down a well, we can survive on the extra calories.” I put the chocolate away, knuckles brushing the locket we’d found together. I’d been keeping that close since its magic had been helpful. “Are there grenades in your other pocket too?”

“That one has a small magnet on twine and a lock-picking kit.”

“By your standards, a small magnet is probably the size of my head.”

He slanted an amused look in my direction. “Your head wouldn’t fit in my pocket.”

“The size of a lemon?”

If he could fit two grenades in his pocket, he ought to be able to fit lemon-sized magnets in there.

“Amalfi Coast or Meyer?” Duncan asked.

“I… don’t know how big an Amalfi Coast lemon is.” I’d never even heard of the variety.

“Perhaps, one day, we can take a trip to Italy, and I can show you some in person.”

I started to shake my head, but… couldn’t I travel somewhere exotic now? With the boys gone, I didn’t have to worry about their school or sports schedules, and I’d dug myself out of debt, so I could hypothetically take a vacation. I even had an intern, at least for the moment, who could take over my work for a few days.

“You seem like someone who could use a vacation,” Duncan offered, glancing at the map. Outside, the scenery along the freeway had transitioned from the lights of suburban houses to dark fields and trees.

“Tell me about it.”

A phone rang, startling us enough that we both twitched. It wasn’t my ringtone. Since Duncan looked in confusion at the car display, it probably wasn’t his either. The call didn’t pop up on the screen, so the phone wasn’t paired to the Tesla.

As the phone rang again, I peered around and patted between the seats. Finally, I spotted the lit screen in the seat well behind Duncan, next to one of the rifles that had been used to shoot at me.

I picked it up but hesitated. “We probably shouldn’t answer, right?”

Duncan shrugged and took the phone from me, hitting accept before it dropped to voicemail.

“Yeah?” he answered in a flat tone, not bringing the phone close to his mouth. Was he trying to subdue his accent?

“Is this Dox? Or Ballinger? You get her yet?”

My blood chilled. It was the voice of the raspy guy who’d called the office after I posted the ad.

“We’ve got her,” Duncan said. “We lost Dox.”

I grimaced, sure his attempt at an American accent wouldn’t be enough to fool the caller. The guy would recognize the voices of his subordinates, surely.

“Is the male werewolf dead?” Maybe the speaker didn’t care about his subordinates.

“Yeah,” Duncan said.

“Okay. Bring her up. The scientist thinks she’s the key to figuring this amulet out.”

Amulet? Did he mean my mother’s medallion?

“Okay.” Duncan hit the hang-up button, then looked at me. “Did I sound like the guy whose phone that was?”

“How should I know?” I had no idea which of the men Dox and Ballinger had been.

“The caller is either going to be waiting for us with open arms or semiautomatic weapons loaded with silver bullets.”

I leaned forward, tempted to drop my face between my legs. “Do you think two grenades, a lock-picking kit, and a magnet will be enough to allow us to be victorious?”

“I’m hoping those will get us inside when we reach our destination. It’s our two sets of werewolf fangs that will allow us to be victorious.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to change again so soon. I don’t have to tell you that the magic bleeds off, and it’s usually a once-a-night thing. For some, it’s only once a night during a full moon.”

“You’ve got a lot more power than that. I can tell. And so do I.” Duncan reached over and touched my arm. “We’ll be all right. And we’ll get the artifacts back for you and your family.”

“I hope so,” I whispered, watching the dark landscape outside as we headed farther north and into farmland. Farmland and, apparently, at least one perfume factory.