They stilled and listened. The muffled sound came again, with some rattling this time.
“It’s coming from the van,” Jace said, hurrying forward. His men were already on it. As they got closer, a medical station was revealed behind it. Cabinets and tables and gleaming metal instrumentation that was obviously used for some kind of medical procedure on the inmates. Jaxson picked up his pace, but just as a shining silver table swung into view, and he saw someone strapped to it with hand and foot restraints, he heard one of his crew shout, “It’s Jared!”
Jaxson screeched to a stop as dread washed through him. “Jace!” he shouted.
But it was too late.
A popping, like firecrackers, filled the warehouse—Jaxson recognized the sound of tranquilizer darts just as his men started dropping like flies. Jaxson swung his weapon around wildly, looking for the source, realizing too late the ambush came from above. He fired off several rounds at the shadowy figures filling the rafters, but darts pinched his shoulder, legs, and chest simultaneously. A half dozen bee bites that blurred his vision and clattered his gun to the floor.
He shifted to wolf form, dislodging the darts and leaving them behind with his clothing, but his paws scrabbled ineffectively on the concrete floor. The tranq was already turning his limbs useless, even in wolf form.
A trap. The whole thing was a trap.
Jaxson only got a few feet toward his fallen brothers before the darkness took him.
“Why do I have to be involved?” Olivia asked.
Aunt Gwen pursed her perfectly shaped lips. “Well, we could invite your shifter friend here to help us determine whether the curse is still in effect. But that probably wouldn’t end well.”
No, it wouldn’t. Plus Olivia didn’t want Jaxson to know anything about this until it was complete… and irreversible. “All right,” she said with a sigh. “What do I have to do?”
“I need some essence of the man, something to help me find him in the magical world.”
Olivia frowned, suddenly uncertain. “You’re not going to do anything to him… are you?”
“Well, of course not, dear.” Gwen’s face twisted up like Olivia had suggested she take a dip in the dumpster outside the coven’s high-rise office.
“It’s just that… I know shifters and witches are mortal enemies.” Olivia bit her lip, hoping she wasn’t crossing a line here.
“Unless we’re in bed together.” Gwen’s face transformed from horrified into a smirk in no time flat.
“And maybe even then,” Olivia countered. “I’ve heard the stories, Aunt Gwen.”
She just rolled her eyes. “Do you believe every story you hear about shifters?”
A fair point. “All right,” she conceded. “Back to the spell—what kind of essence of Jaxson do you need?”
“A memory. The more intimate, the better.”
Olivia scrunched up her nose. Sharing that just seemed… wrong.
“Well, it would be easier with a hair sample or article of clothing, but I’m assuming you didn’t bring any of that.”
Olivia sighed. “No.”
Gwen strode over to one of the burnished-wood bookcases that lined her office and plucked a pinch of something out of an iridescent glass box. She brought it back to Olivia and sifted the whitish powder with the fingers of one hand, letting it fall into the palm of the other.
“Would you like to learn how to do a seeking spell, Miss Olivia?” Aunt Gwen’s eyes were lit up with delight.
“I’m not doing any magic, Aunt Gwen.” Olivia scowled.
The delight faded. “My dear, you’re going to have to learn someday.”
“No, really, I don’t.” When Gwen looked unconvinced, Olivia added, “I mean it, Aunt Gwen. I’m not going there.”
“Very well.” Her lips pursed again and waved her hand over the tiny pile of white dust, whispering some kind of incantation. The words must have been from another language because Olivia couldn’t understand them. Returning to English, her aunt said, “You’ll only be a bystander in this one—providing a key ingredient for the spell, if you will. I’ll be doing all the magic.”
Olivia nodded her consent.
The dust in her aunt’s hand began to smoke, and a swirl of tiny blue sparks dove through the small cloud in her hand. Gwen held her hand up to Olivia’s face, and then gently blew the smoke her way.
Olivia did expect that, but her gasp only sucked the smoke directly into her lungs. She huffed it out again, thinking she might cough, but instead the world just got a little blurry around the edges. Her aunt’s face loomed large nearby.