Protector(96)

What the hell? Where was he? And if he wasn’t even near Danica, then why did she still look so strung out? It was possible the spells he cast took awhile to wear off, or maybe she’d been under his influence long enough that he could still put her in that semi-trance even when he wasn’t in the immediate vicinity.

Caitlin leaned against Alex, making sure her hair fell partly across her face, just in case either of the two warlocks might look in this direction at exactly the wrong moment. Under her breath, she said, “Jorge and Tomas are here — standing over in front of the sub shop, with the dark-haired girl in between them. That’s Danica.”

His body went tense, but he kept his arm around her, maintaining the façade that they were just a couple out shopping at the mall, getting a little snuggly. “I see them.”

Miguel and Jack stopped a few feet away and pretended to be scanning the food offerings.

“Charlie’s subs,” Alex told them in an undertone. “The two guys with tats with the girl standing between them.”

“Got it,” Miguel replied.

In that moment, Caitlin’s view of the food court was blanked out, replaced by the parking lot, cars shimmering under the rays of the setting sun. A man and a young woman emerged from the glass-doored entrance to the mall, the woman lifting her arm and pointing, as if at one of the cars. The man nodded and bent toward her, smiling, and then Caitlin saw the flash of his teeth in the sunlight, the glimmer of hot pink in the girl’s long black hair, and she knew the couple was Matías and Zoe, slipping out, so close to getting away.

Where are they? she demanded of herself. Just an entrance isn’t good enough. I need to know which one!

She hadn’t really expected the scene to change. After all, her visions up until now had been terrible about providing any sort of actionable information, no matter how hard she’d tried to bend them to her will. But then it was as if she’d been watching the scene through the lens of a movie camera, one that seemed to swing on one of those boom devices, and the view panned to the right slightly, just enough to show her that the store behind them was Dillard’s. How that had happened, she wasn’t sure. Maybe she was just desperate enough to finally make her strange sight obey her, or maybe she’d now been using her power enough that it was becoming more malleable, more useful.

“They’re leaving,” she told Alex. “I just saw them. The mall entrance by Dillard’s.”

“Shit.”

Miguel must have overheard, because he pointed directly ahead of them. “That way. You’re in luck — it’s the closest exit. You go after them, and we’ll take care of these other two.”

How precisely they were going to manage that, Caitlin wasn’t sure, but Miguel didn’t look overly worried. Hadn’t Alex said earlier that Jack Sandoval was an expert at defensive magic? She’d have to let them handle the situation, as she and Alex had to catch Matías before the two runaways got in Zoe’s car and disappeared. What had happened to the prima-in-waiting’s civilian friends, Caitlin didn’t know, but she figured Matías had somehow maneuvered Zoe away from them so he could get her alone.

Walking quickly, Alex led Caitlin through the crowded food court and out into the parking lot. They paused on the sidewalk to get their bearings, Alex scanning the lot to see if he could locate them, Caitlin doing the same.

It was not her eyes that saved them then, however. A vision came to her again, this time an image of Matías and Zoe approaching a pale blue Fiat.

“Three rows over. Blue Fiat,” she told Alex, and they took off at a run, ignoring the startled looks from the civilians in the area. Right now, attracting attention was something they didn’t have time to worry about.

Even at almost seven o’clock in the evening, the heat rising from the asphalt felt merciless. How hot had it been here today? Caitlin supposed that it didn’t really matter, that her mind was distracting itself so it wouldn’t have to focus on the confrontation ahead. Because there they were, Zoe tossing back her head and laughing, Matías again leaning toward her with a smile on his face, all easy humor now that he thought he’d won.

Because of the way he was bending toward Zoe, he didn’t see Alex and Caitlin approaching. It was Zoe who spotted them first, her laughter dying as she apparently recognized her cousin.

“Alex? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Get away from him, Zoe.”

Her face was a study in puzzlement. “What’s your deal? Matías and I — ”

The dark warlock straightened and turned in their direction, his expression growing black when he saw Caitlin. Just looking at him like that, seeing him walking in the sunlight when Roslyn was dead by his hand, made her almost physically ill. But she couldn’t give in to any weakness now.