Page 15 of Triumph of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #6)
As I lay on the floor, too weak to check on my niece or my druid ally, the wolf magic faded.
Nothing changed as I shifted back into my human form, except that my thinking grew sharper, more human and rational.
The air in the leasing office remained cloudy and foul-scented, almost as much as outside.
I needed to escape the grounds, to breathe in untainted air, to get the toxin out of my system. But I struggled to even push myself into a sitting position and cross the office to check on Bolin and Jasmine. By the blessing of the moon, they had better not be dead.
Car doors slammed in the parking lot, and I remembered what I’d seen as a wolf. Men in gas masks carrying Izzy away.
“Gas mask,” I rasped, then almost laughed and crawled to the desk and opened the bottom drawer.
Half-serious, half-jokingly, I’d bought an old military-grade gas mask to wear while cleaning some of the more noxious vacated apartments.
Even though cat urine and the other unsavory odors tenants left weren’t truly toxic, I kept the mask in working order.
It even had a newer activated-carbon filter.
It was probably too late, but I dragged it over my head and tightened the straps.
That took all my energy, and I flopped onto my back.
Tears leaked from my irritated eyes. Too bad I didn’t also have an air purifier in the office.
Whatever vapors had flowed from those vials had to be potent to have spread so far in the open air and to have infiltrated rooms through closed doors and windows.
No, not potent. Magical .
Had some colleague of Rue’s given my enemies potions? No, I realized numbly. Abrams could make potions himself. That was the whole business that he and Radomir had started.
Staring up at the ceiling and inhaling the air filtered by the mask, I wondered if those men had found Duncan.
Was he the wolf who they’d come for? Who Abrams had come for?
I had irritated a lot of people of late, including Izzy and all those motorcycle thugs, but I couldn’t imagine any of them attacking me with magical concoctions.
This had to have been orchestrated by Abrams.
My mind slowly cleared as I breathed the filtered air.
When I flexed my fingers, they were still numb but not as much as before.
Even so, it took me a long moment to roll to my hands and knees so I could crawl over to check on Bolin and Jasmine.
My stomach knotted with the worry that they would be dead.
If Abrams killed my friends—killed anyone in my territory—I would find him and tear his throat out.
Bolin and Jasmine were both alive, but their heartbeats were sluggish, so my worry didn’t dissipate.
When I managed to rise to my feet, naked except for the mask, I opened the door warily.
Outside, the complex lay utterly still, nobody coming or going in the parking lot.
The vans that had rolled in were gone. I didn’t sense Izzy, and I feared they’d taken her away.
Or maybe, when they’d realized she wasn’t me, they might have killed her.
At least the haze seemed a little lighter, a faint breeze whispering through and stirring it. The rumble of late-night freeway traffic came from the other side of the woods, promising the rest of the city was unaffected. The haze had probably settled only over Sylvan Serenity.
“Of course. I—” I broke off, sensing someone’s approach. “Duncan?” I called.
Relief swept through me when he answered.
“I’m here,” he called, his voice thick and raspy. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
He walked between two trees and into view, though he paused when he spotted me.
After spending time as a wolf, he was as naked as I. More naked since I wore the mask, though the Medallion of Memory and Power did hang around his neck, the artifact emanating magic as it glowed faintly. Had it helped him remain conscious when he’d inhaled the vapors?
Blood ran down his arm, suggested he’d also had a run-in with the invaders.
“That’s an interesting new fashion choice that you’re making.” Duncan nodded to my mask. “Was it also acquired from your Goodwill store? And experienced?”
“The army-surplus store, but I believe it was experienced, yes.”
“The air is loathsome out here, so I don’t blame you for wearing it. I think this is the only reason I haven’t passed out.” He ticked the wolf head on the medallion. “I could feel its magic protecting me.”
“Guess I should be wearing my mom’s.”
“Absolutely. And isn’t it… Well, it seemed like she was giving it to you to be yours. To keep and wear.”
I hesitated. I had gotten that vibe from Mom, but wearing it before she was gone… didn’t seem right. Didn’t it still belong to her? Until the end?
Not wanting to explain my feelings, I only said, “I think she mostly wants me to wear it up to the cave so it can magically coerce us to have sex.”
“If you dress like that and take me to a cave, I won’t be able to help myself, whether there’s outside influence or not.” Duncan waved at my naked form.
“Oh, is the mask turning you on?”
“All of you turns me on.” His gaze shifted past me—Bolin had stirred slightly—and his expression grew more sober. “Did everyone else get knocked out?”
“Maybe. Being inside didn’t seem to help people. And… they got Izzy.”
“Got her?”
“Picked her up, put her in their van, and drove off.”
Duncan scratched his jaw. “That’s unexpected. As far as I could tell, they were after me . They spotted me in the street and tried to snag me, but I wasn’t that close when their hired delivery driver was shooting those vials all over the place, so I was able to get away.”
“Do you have any idea who they were?”
His shoulders slumped. “I can’t know for sure, but since they were using magical alchemical substances…”
“Abrams?”
Duncan nodded. “I assume so. Unless Rue has decided to ply our enemies with knock-out potions.”
“I certainly hope not. I gave her two ten-percent discounts, and I didn’t charge her for the first two months of rent.”
“You’re a most kind property manager. She should feel beholden to you.” Duncan gazed toward the woods.
Another werewolf had arrived. Lykos.
In his furry form, he padded along the edge of the property, his dark silhouette just visible in the night and the lingering haze. He looked over at us but didn’t approach, instead turning deeper into the woods.
Had he come to spy? Or… to take advantage and kill Duncan if he’d been knocked out? What if Lykos, who’d been trying to set traps for Duncan, had been the mastermind behind this?
I looked frankly at him. “You’re going to have to confront Abrams, you know.”
“I do know that, yes.”
“Before his little assassin gets old enough and smart enough to get the best of you.”
Duncan sighed and didn’t deny it.