Magical Midlife Madness (Leveling Up #1)(40)

“And who might that be, you?” Austin said, power coiling in his body.

“My employer, actually.” A white card magically appeared in the man’s gloved hand. He flung it, the rectangle cutting through the darkness and skidding across the road. He turned to me and bowed, his cape swirling around him. “Watch yourself, lady. You wouldn’t want to pick the losing side.”

He flared his cape and stalked away, melting into the brush and disappearing, his exit as strange as his entrance. His lackey followed suit.

Limbs shaking, heart racing, and phone cracked or worse, I tried to round on the three elderly people and Austin all at once. Their positioning made it impossible, so I aimed my miserable uncertainty at Austin.

“Lucy, you have some s’plaining to do!”

A blur of movement caught my attention in my peripheral vision. A second set of hands clamped down on my arms, fingers long and spindly though strangely strong. A face leaned in toward my neck.

My adrenaline spiked. Fear coursed through me.

A sharp blast of pain dug into my neck, prompting a sort of primal fear I’d never felt before. I was already moving.

I jabbed over my shoulder, catching the perpetrator in the eye. He jerked back and howled, and I realized it was Edgar.

This would not be the night I was buried in the yard.

I shook out of his hands, turning to sprint.

Blackness overcame me before I took a step.





Sixteen





Earl watched, struck mute with surprise, as Edgar jerked away from Jessie, howling. His fingers and fangs came loose from her neck.

Austin Steele was there in an instant. He lifted Edgar with one hand and launched him into the bushes on the side of the street. Jessie was already succumbing to Edgar’s bite, stunned and headed for sleep. She fell bonelessly to the ground—or she would have if Austin Steele hadn’t swooped down and scooped her up mid-fall, cradling her to his chest gently despite his size and strength.

“My goodness.” Earl clapped. “Quite the fast-acting hero. I am impressed.”

“Oh sure, yeah, clap after someone else saved your charge, you donkey,” Niamh said to Earl. She turned to Edgar, crawling out of the bushes, green shoots sticking out of his clothes. “And what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t know,” Edgar answered reflexively, quailing under everyone’s attention. He shrank back into the bushes.

“Why’d you bite her then?” Niamh demanded.

“I don’t know,” he repeated, eyes wide. The bushes shook around him.

“He’s panicking,” Earl said, his comforting smile withering in the face of Austin Steele’s stare. “He’s a vampire—you know how they are. Bite first, ask questions later. I’m sure there is a good reason for all this. Edgar, let’s see if you can come up with a better answer, shall we?” Earl said, edging away from Austin Steele. He didn’t trust the big alpha when his dander was up, even with Jessie hanging limp in his arms, her head lolling on his shoulder. Maybe especially with Jessie hugged possessively in his grasp. Austin Steele’s protective instincts made him uncommonly violent, even for a shifter. Earl would just as soon keep his arms attached to his body.

“Well, we can’t tell her about the house,” Edgar said in a small voice, now completely hidden within the bushes, “and she’s going to demand some answers, so…I stunned her to give us time.”

“There, you see?” Earl said. “That is a fair point. And Austin Steele was on hand to make sure her head didn’t crack against the cement after she poked Edgar’s eye out. Collectively, we’ve done well, I think.”

“She had good reflexes, she did,” Niamh said, chewing her bottom lip.

“We can visit Agnes and get a draught,” Earl said. “I’m sure a memory potion will do nicely for tonight, and then tomorrow she can hopefully find the heart of the house, and—”

“No.” Austin Steele’s voice sent an uncomfortable shiver racing down Earl’s spine. Earl took another couple of steps away. “Tonight was just a sample. A precursor. If the house grants her its magic, we’ll see more kidnapping attempts. Stronger magic. There will be no protecting her from it. The whole town will be overrun.”

“Sure this place will be overrun eventually, anyway,” Niamh said, crossing her arms.

“If she doesn’t find the heart, and no heirs come forward, no one will be interested in this town,” Austin Steele replied.

“There is always someone interested in this town, Austin Steele. You’ve sheltered a great many magical folk here, but what happens when ye get too old to keep them? What happens when the next alpha comes looking for a lost pack mate, or simply because he’d like to challenge the legendary Austin Steele? One day, that other alpha will be younger and stronger and more ruthless. He might take your precious townspeople for sport.”

His muscles popped along his powerful frame and his jaw clenched. “It is a long way from that day.”

Earl involuntarily gulped and thought about joining Edgar in the bushes. Niamh was the only person in this whole town who would even think of butting heads with Austin Steele. She’d always been one joker shy of a full deck, but every so often she went a step further and pulled on the devil’s teats. No one in their right mind wanted to be in Austin Steele’s way when he lost himself to his beast. The woman was mad. But at least Earl had gotten through to her.