Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6)(40)

“That was not gas!” Charlie argued. “You’re just pissed because Savion scowls at you instead of smiles.”

“He’s too much like his father,” Jonas retorted.

I rolled my eyes.

We pulled to a stop next to Jameson’s blue SUV. It was a quiet walk into the main house where they had the shifter tied up in the living room. The marks my spell had left on the guy were long gone, and there were no other marks from Toa except the man’s crazy eyes. Charles stayed with me while Jonas ducked out again to ask some shifters if there had been any other sightings. Apparently Tim’s guys had smelled people like the clan, but no one had seen anyone. After I had taken a look at the jerk who tried to kill me, I’d go look for some goons trying to hide with their magic. I was no stranger to unraveling an invisibility spell.

The room hushed when I walked in. Tim pushed off the far wall toward me. “Hey Sasha,” he said solemnly. “Sorry you had to come here for this.”

“I’m ready to go back to work,” I said. This jerk tried to kill me right before I gave birth. He had tried to end three lives. I didn’t have a soft spot for the guy.

Stefan walked into the room with Paulie right behind him. Stefan gave my back a rub as he passed. “This guy’s car is registered to a human in Arizona. Paulie had someone check it out—the humans are long gone. Dead, probably. Their assets are most likely in the hands of this guy’s boss. No lead.”

The man in the cage stared at the ground. He would not look at me.

I walked directly in front of him and stared down into the physical cage. It was tall enough for him to stand up in and turn around, and wide enough to squat or sit, but not big enough to lie down. That, in itself, was a form of torture.

“So he won’t give up what he knows?” I asked with a bite to my words.

The man looked up slowly. He was attractive with light brown eyes and a masculine cleft in his chin. His smile set off warning bells, though. He was cunning and a killer, both. I could see it in the coldness of his eyes.

Not a big deal, though. Everyone in this room was a killer in some form. And this guy would probably see that first hand before long.

“Got yourself in quite the pickle, huh?” I asked in a cheery voice. “Picked on the wrong human.”

“Ill planned,” he said with a British lilt to his speech. “An issue I will not repeat.”

“No. You won’t live long enough to. Pity. Right, well, I’ll leave Toa to deal with you. I have to go find your clever friends who are probably hiding in the bushes.”

The man snorted. “A human with a God complex. How refreshing.”

“God complex? Because I can use my magic?” I lightly shook my head. “Never argue with a stupid person, he’ll drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience.”

I winked at Stefan and made my way outside with Charles following right behind. We checked in with a shifter standing by the door. “Where’s Jonas?”

The guy pointed off to the right. I let my magic spread out and walked off that way. Once at the tree line, I glanced way off to the right, and then the left, looking for a grumbling, stocky character. I didn’t see one.

“Think he went around the back?” I asked in confusion.

“Doubt it,” Charles said, peering into the trees, and then looking back at the house we’d just come out of. “Where’d he go, I wonder.”

I pushed my magic as far as I could, feeling the shifters dotting the area but staying away from the house. I walked to the right, trying to push farther. Trying to get a feel of Jonas if nothing else. The guy didn’t usually play hide-and-seek.

Halfway to the back I felt something. Up high. A mingling magic and a definite spell working. I glanced up and noticed a branch not quite out straight like its friends, but bent. As if someone was sitting on it. And then I felt the eyes. Very clever.

“Got one,” I said quietly.

Charles looked up as I unraveled a pretty simple concealment spell. The shifters smelled Charles’ kind abstractly, but not directly. Why? Because they were perched up in the trees. As the spell withered away, I couldn’t help but laugh.

A middle-aged man in black spandex clung to the trunk halfway up. He had a surprised expression mingled with an “oh crap” look.

“Gotcha!” I yelled up at him.

He tried to jump away into the trees, but I threw some binding around him and watched as he fell to the ground to a lump. Charles was standing over him with a sword a moment later. “How do ya like me now?”

“Except I was the one that did it, dummy,” I said. “C’mon, grab him. We’ll take him in and see if Jonas hit the toilet or something.”

Now we had two sources of information, and I knew very well that Toa and Dominicous would work them off of each other.

I’d been on the job for all of fifteen minutes and already I’d found one of the bad guys. Was I good, or was I good.

I couldn’t help the strut back to the house as Charles carried the guy. If there was trouble coming, a body torn up by having kids wasn’t enough to prevent me from meeting the danger. And since my kids were taken care of, even if the worst happened, I could continue to protect them, and our way of life, without reservation.

I smiled in elation as I walked inside and gestured back to Charles. “Got one.”