Page 24

24

When Niko came to, he found himself shackled to a wooden beam. His back was on fire from where he’d been knocked out by the power of two witches, but the thing that was most apparent to him was that he’d been relieved of all his magical gadgets. There was no amulet, no dagger, and no stun gun that had been spelled to work even when there was no charge.

The room smelled like stale beer and unwashed bodies, making his nose twitch. It took a moment for his eyes to focus, but when they did, he noted he wasn’t alone. There was a round table in the middle of the room with two women mindlessly crushing herbs and heating potions. Neither of them had any life in them, just a single-minded determination to make potion after potion after potion.

He focused on the faces of each of the women and wasn’t all that surprised to see that they were the twins, Kinsley and Kimber. Both of them working silently on what could only be illegal potions. No one who was selling legitimate healing potions would be making them in the back room of a college bar. No, this was a drug running operation. If he had to guess, Dean Rollins had decided that it was cheaper and more efficient to compel his workers to make his product than it was to actually pay them and keep them in line.

Other than the obvious problem of the women going missing, Niko understood why a drug runner would want to compel his workers. More control, less costs. It was a win for a drug boss as long as no one missed the girls.

In this case, Niko had been looking for the twins. The drug boss had attracted exactly the wrong person if they were trying to stay under the radar. It was a huge mistake on their part, and once he got out of this, the dean would be having a nice long vacation in a cement cell.

“It looks like your time here is coming to a close,” Rollins said as he walked up to Niko. “Your girlfriend just arrived.”

Niko just stared at him. The old bastard didn’t deserve a reaction.

Rollins chuckled. “I like your fire, Agent Morales. It’s too bad our relationship will end today, but rest assured you’ll be remembered as someone who went out honorably.”

“How’s that?” Niko asked, his voice rough from lack of use.

“Once your girlfriend gets here, her magic will take you and the twins out, and then we’ll take her out. After that, it will be clear she’s been the one compelling students and running this drug operation. She’ll be blamed for all of it. I’ll be rid of both of you and this scandal that’s been dogging my school for years. Then I can regroup and get back to business as usual.”

The back door swung open, and in walked Officer Paul Pitts and Indigo. He had her hands tied and a knife to her throat. Behind them there was a familiar woman with curly black hair that he thought looked a lot like the person Indigo had saved outside of her shop earlier in the week.

“As an added bonus,” the dean said, “my partner here will finally have the pleasure of ridding the world of his ex-fiancée. I know it’s been a goal of his for a very long time. And I like to reward my most loyal.”

Niko tested the bindings around his wrists that were holding him to the wooden beam. They didn’t budge.

Rollins laughed, the sound sinister. “You don’t really think you stand a chance of getting out of this, do you? I’m a very powerful witch, Mr. Morales. It would take something really special to take me down at this stage of the game.”

Niko met Indigo’s eyes and tried to express everything he was feeling in that one look. Regret. Determination. Trust. Devotion. He wasn’t ready to give up, and he could tell by the look of pure defiance in her gaze that she wasn’t either. They’d fight this to the end and die trying if they had to. Not only for themselves, but for the twins as well. He didn’t know their role in any of this, but whatever it was, it didn’t deserve death as part of a coverup for a corrupt old fool who didn’t value anything in life over money and power.

“I’m ready, Dean Rollins,” the woman behind Paul said.

“I’m sure you are, Jesse,” the dean said affectionately as he walked over to Paul and the woman. “But first we need to hear from Ms. Easton.”

Indigo glared at him.

“Tell us why you think Mr. Morales deserves to die,” he taunted.

“I think you deserve a swift kick in the nuts,” she said.

The woman he called Jesse let out a bark of laughter. “She really is fire, isn’t she, Paul? I can see why you thought she might be your match at one time.”

“That’s enough, Jesse,” the dean snapped as he pressed his hand to Indigo’s throat. “As for you, I won’t tolerate any more of your smart mouth. Keep it up and you’ll find out what it means to be mute before Paul ends your sad existence.”

Hatred poured off Indigo, and for a moment, Niko thought she might spit in his face. But instead she just cut her gaze to the twins. There was compassion there, and Niko knew then that there was no way the dean would ever break her. He felt a swell of pride and again tested his restraints.

The dean spun around and glared at Niko. “Stop testing me.”

That was when Niko realized he wasn’t being held with traditional restraints. He was being held by the dean’s magic. If he wanted to get out of this, he’d need to rattle the dean so that he could weaken the spell just enough to break his bonds.

“Am I interrupting your ego-wanking, Dean?” Niko taunted. “It isn’t enough to kill us all, you need to make yourself feel all powerful first by insulting a bunch of women?”

He pulled his hand from Indigo’s neck and held it up, miming choking Niko. The pressure was instant, though not so tight that he couldn’t breathe. “Are you going to kill me, Dean?” Niko choked out. “Go ahead. I’m betting that you aren’t carrying Indigo’s magical signature. The MTF would go crazy investigating you if they find you killed one of their agents with your bare hands.”

Rollins dropped his hand instantly and turned to Paul. “Get this over with.”

Paul nodded once and gestured to Jesse. “You’re up, babe. Make it good. We’re all ready for the show.”

Jesse pulled out a couple of small vials of potion as she walked over to the twins. She sat across from them, placed a vial in front of each of them, and then said, “Take a vial and down all the contents. Understand?”

They both nodded and reached for the vials.

The back door burst open at the exact same time that Indigo lunged toward the twins and screamed, “No!”

Niko used all of his mental energy to break free of Rollins’s spell. It took more power than he’d ever used before, but in the chaos, he managed it. The moment he sprung free, he bolted toward the twins and grabbed one of them just before she tilted the potion into her mouth. He grabbed it and threw it across the room, causing the glass to shatter and the potion to spill on the dirty cement floor.

“No!” the twin cried and scrambled for the potion, but it was too late. It was ruined the minute it hit the floor.

Niko turned his attention to Indigo and found she had the other twin by both hands, and her blue ice magic was crawling over the twin’s arms. She was reversing the compulsion spell. He wanted to pull Indigo off her. He knew that when she finished reversing the spell, she’d be in no shape to fight off the dean or Paul and his crazy sidekick, Jesse.

But he knew it was too late. She was already in the spell and interrupting her wasn’t an option. Instead, he turned to jump back into the fight. And that’s when he realized the people who had busted in were none other than Indigo’s sisters.

Sage, Lily, and Prim had formed a circle around the dean, Paul, and Jesse and had them locked in a golden magical cage. The amount of magic pouring off them was enough to power an entire state.

Niko took a step back, awed by the power of the sisters. Trusting that they could hold the perpetrators, he moved over to the other twin, who was sitting on the floor, crying over the potion she couldn’t take.

“How can I fulfill my duty now?” she asked Niko, her eyes red and tears trickling down her face. “How can I please my creator?”

He was grateful he hadn’t eaten much that day, otherwise the contents of his stomach might have ended up on the floor with the spoiled potion. The compulsion spell made these witches see their oppressors as gods. There was nothing more vile than that. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. We’ll get you what you need in no time.”

The twin leaned into him, crying on his shoulder until the other twin ran over and said, “Kimber? Are you okay? What happened?” she asked Niko and then turned to Indigo. “What’s going on?”

“You were compelled,” Indigo said softly. “I reversed that spell. Now let me help your sister.” Indigo sat down and took Kimber from Niko’s arms.

He stared at her, shocked she wasn’t passed out on the floor and asked, “How?”

She seemed to understand his question when she nodded to her sisters. “Their power is fueling me.”

He made a mental note to send flowers to each of her sisters every week for the next year. After Indigo had freed Kimber of the compulsion spell, he walked the twins out of the back room and into the parking lot, leaving the Easton sisters to keep the dean and his cohorts contained while he called in backup.

The twins clung to each other, both of them pale-faced and confused.

“What happened?” Kinsley asked, her gaze darting from Kimber to Niko. “I don’t remember anything.”

“I do,” Kimber said, her voice wobbly. “Polly told me everything.”

That got Niko’s attention. He ended his call, confident that a team would be there in moments to contain the dean and company, and then he gave Kimber his full attention. “What do you mean, she told you everything?”

Kimber launched into her story of how Polly also worked at the bar. She found out about the potion operation and was going to turn the dean in, but before she could, they compelled her and forced her to work in their potion factory. Then it burned down and Kimber thought that was the end of it, but they came after Kinsley, and Kimber didn’t know why. She started her own investigation into the dean and Paul and learned they had targeted Kinsley to help them get information on Indigo, the creator of the spell.

Kimber turned to her sister. “They were using you to get to Indigo. And once they realized you weren’t going to get them what they needed, they compelled you the same way they did Polly. I found out and was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. I thought if I could just figure out how to reverse the spell, I could get you out of there and we’d just take off. Get lost somewhere far away from here.” She glanced at Niko. “That’s why I was at Indigo’s office, trying to find notes on the spell. But then she showed up, and the next thing I knew, Officer Pitts was taking me in for questioning. That’s all I remember. They must have compelled me, too.”

Niko didn’t have the heart to tell them that they’d been next on the chopping block. They’d find that out soon enough once charges were filed. For the time being, all they needed to know was that they were safe. “They’ve been contained,” he told them. “This entire operation is over. You’re safe now. I promise.”

The twins clung to each other as they huddled against the back wall and stayed that way until backup from the MTF arrived. One of the agents took their statements and then indicated to Niko that they’d be treated and offered counseling.

Another team had gone inside and relieved the Easton sisters, and moments later, the dean, Officer Pitts, and Jesse were taken out in magical chains. They wouldn’t be going anywhere for a very long time.

All of the Easton sisters looked exhausted when they emerged from the bar’s back room. But there was still a sense of absolute power that clung to them.

Niko grinned. “You four could have a place at the MTF if you wanted.”

All of them shuddered at once, making him laugh. “I’ll take that as a no?”

“It’s a definite no,” Indigo said. Then she hugged each of her sisters, thanked them, and said, “See you in the morning for coffee?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Sage said.

“Only if there’s lemon poppy seed muffins,” Lily said.

Prim rolled her eyes. “When isn’t there?” The youngest Easton gently squeezed Indigo’s hand and said, “See you in the morning, sis.” Then she turned to Niko. “Don’t keep her up too late. She needs her beauty rest.”

They all laughed as the three sisters left together.

“I think I’m in love with the entire Easton family,” Niko said.

Indigo just grinned. “Can we go home now?”

“Give me just a minute.” He went to talk to the investigating officer in charge, and in a few short moments, he was back by Indigo. “Ready. I told them I’d file my report from home.”

“They let you do that?” she asked as he walked her to his truck.

“Sure.” He opened the door for her.

She glanced behind her. “What about my SUV?”

“One of the agents will drop it off tonight,” he said, tossing one of them her keys. “You don’t need to be driving after all that.”

She eyed him. “Neither do you.”

“Solid point, but I’ll have you, so I trust you’ll make sure I’m safe,” he said with a wink.

“Always. As long as you’ll promise to always do the same for me.”

“Always,” he agreed. Then he leaned in and sealed the deal with a kiss.

There were hoots and hollers from his fellow agents.

Niko just grinned. Then he climbed into his truck and took his girl home.