“Great.” I tried to smile, but it felt more like I was baring my teeth. “We’ll walk the area and then start. Do you mind using my salt mix for the purification spell?”

  “Nope.”

  “Dandy.” I headed for my car as Mitchell came over to talk to him. By the time I returned with another bag of salt, she was chatting cheerfully. He had that effect on women.

  “Your salt,” I said, breaking into their conversation without a hint of subtlety.

  Mitchell’s brows pulled together, but my interruption didn’t bother Jamie. He took the bag of salt and motioned toward the crime scene. “This is your area of expertise. Lead the way.” He smiled, again.

  “Car first.” Behind me, I heard him make polite excuses to Mitchell before jogging to catch up.

  “You’re grumpy this morning.”

  “Four hours of sleep makes Kelsey a dull girl.”

  “Grumpy isn’t the same as dull.”

  “I haven’t had a full night’s sleep since I woke up Monday morning.” Before he could ask another question, I launched into a description of what I thought we needed to do. From the car, along the path to the deer, I explained salting, and the spell enhancer I’d made and how it worked. While explaining the embroidered runes, I glanced over and found him smiling at me. “What?”

  “One year, you embroidered a border on a scarf. Told me it would never unravel or blow away, and it never did.” He lost the seductive edge, and for a moment, he was the boy whose last name I doodled next to mine in notebooks. “I never thought about what else you could do with embroidery.”

  “Stop.” It came out too sharp, even to my ears, but I couldn’t think about those times, not now. “Sorry. Um, this next part, it isn’t just bloody. Remember when we’d go on picnics with the family, and Mom would take the others hunting and then bring it back so we could eat together even if we weren’t eating the same thing?”

  That memory faded his smile. “Yes.”

  “This next part is like one of their kills halfway through them eating, okay?” He’d dealt well enough with the gore back then, but people could change, and it wouldn’t do for him to vomit on the crime scene.

  “I’ll manage.” He motioned for me to lead the way.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence. He studied the dead deer, and if it bothered him, it didn’t show.

  “Can we get started?”

  All the easy charm was gone. “Blood magic and stimulant spells? You need help.”

  “I do not need the clan! The rest of the bureau is on this. We’ll get the wolf.” Four years of college, two of training, and I still wasn’t good enough.

  “Four days of this isn’t a winning track record, Kelsey.”

  I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the officers who seemed a little too interested in our conversation. “You’ll get paid, what do you care? This is my job, and I’ll see to it that every person behind this is brought to justice.”

  “It’s too much for one witch.”

  “No, it’s too much for some witches. I’ll be fine.” I glared up at him. “If you don’t have useful information about the magic fragments, shut up and help me purify the area.”

  He backed away, his face inscrutable. “I take it you want to do the entire area at once?”

  “That’s the plan.” I eyed him warily. As a boy, he hadn’t simply agreed.

  “Then we have a lot to do.” He opened the bag of salt.

  I readied my own and joined him at the forest side of the deer. “Shall we?”

  “Sure.”

  We each started sprinkling, overlapping at first in case there were any differences in the batches of salt before continuing down each side. We went all the way to the far end of the car without speaking. That should’ve made me happy, but instead I wondered how he’d changed over the years.

  “You should take lead. It’s your spell, you know it better than anyone.” He handed me the empty bag of salt.

  I tucked it into my kit and got out the embroidered cloth. I tried to find a good reason to have him lead the spell. There wasn’t one. “Fine.” I’d have to lower my shields and let him in, when a single slip would give him a peek at my thoughts and the well of necromancy.

  The corner of his mouth twisted in what could’ve been another smile. He stripped off his gloves and came up behind me. “Relax. We’ve done this a thousand times.”

  I wanted to say that was a lifetime ago when I was a different person and so was he.

  His fingers pressed against each side of my neck. Warm spots against a cool morning. His magic brushed against my skin.

  Sweet bones of Narzel. Don’t let me regret this.

  With the smallest adjustment to match magics, he was inside my shields, a warm buzz of power, and a gentle press of encouragement.

  With a single rune, the cloth levitated to above the car. It took hardly more than a stray thought for him to power the boundary shield. Magic slid between us until Jamie regulated it, feeding power to me.

  The magic evened out and I triggered the purification spell. Magic poured out of both of us, filling the spell until it flowed over in a glorious wash of gold. I throttled the power output, and he reduced what he offered to match.

  When the car was free of the corruption, I levitated the cloth down the salt corridor. Jamie stayed with me every step of the way as we purified the area. He even held the connection when I tripped over a stone, and for a moment we lost skin contact.

  By the deer, I had to feed more magic into the spell. It cleaned the area, and I cut off the purification. Purified magic, just a touch, flowed back, and with it went the fatigue of the early morning.

  “Done?” His breath warmed my ear.

  No, I wanted this moment, when I wasn’t afraid or stressed or tired, to last. Before the thought lured me to things best left alone, I said, “Yes.”

  The warmth of his power withdrew, and he lifted his fingers away.

  Cool air flowed over the spots on my neck, making me shiver. As much as I wanted to reach out, have that peace back, if only for a moment, I reset my shields as I turned to face him. “Thank you.”

  The spell had taken about as much magic as I’d thought, but sharing the burden had left both of us with plenty in reserve.

  “It was a pleasure. Call me any time.” His smile hearkened back to memories of us, but he turned away.

  Watching him talk with Mitchell, I wasn’t sure I’d made the right choice. Maybe I should’ve said something. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. Maybe love didn’t die the way I’d always believed.

  He drove away, and I hoped this time he stayed away for years. One day, I truly wouldn’t care. One day.

  Charm in hand, pacing the length of the strip mall in predawn light, it occurred to me that my tracking charms hadn’t been living up to expectations. From the front of the buildings, this thing had indicated to go to the back. From the back, it pointed to the front. Since there hadn’t been any broken doors or windows, I hadn’t a clue how it thought the werewolf was inside.

  It locked onto the shop directly in front of me. Small letters on the back door read, “Pro Swing Golf Supplies.” It might have been a trendy place to shop twenty years ago, but this strip mall had seen better days. The area wasn’t drawing in customers willing to drop top dollar on a set of clubs.

  I motioned the cops over. “Same shop. My guess is he’s in there.”

  They got on their radios, and I ended up back in the parking lot munching on a disappointing granola bar—why were they always crunchy?—while we waited for SWAT. It had been deemed too risky for us regular officers to go in.

  At least the tea was good. The bathroom options less so, but the arcade was the only shop I had access to with a bathroom, so I was properly grateful and used hand sanitizer from my car since the soap dispenser didn’t dispense.

  SWAT arrived with the sun. They also refused to take me in, which seemed like a mistake to me. Given what had happened to the guy at Get Magic Goods after limited contact, I would’ve wanted the witch who could counter spells leading the charge, but it wasn’t my call. Instead, I got a nice front row spot to watch them breach the door.

  While SWAT was gearing up, Nash and his assistant were leaving with the deer. Mitchell hadn’t even called him until after Jamie and I had purified the place. He hadn’t seemed thrilled, but I noticed he hadn’t protested the extra sleep. SWAT didn’t seem to want him around, something about unnecessary risk and getting evidence away before anything could contaminate it.

  Nash’s van took a left out of the parking lot, and SWAT started marching toward the door. From the guy talking into the radio, I figured the team at the back was moving too.

  They breached the front door and charged in. I held my breath. The charm had to be accurate, or it would be my ass on the line when it came to explaining just why the SWAT team busted into Pro Swing.

  A shadow angled across the parking lot in front of the store. The uneven shape drew my attention. Turing my eyes skyward, I searched for the bird or whatever caused it.

  Movement pulled my attention back to the building. The shadow changed again, and I spotted a person on the roof. My first thought was that SWAT sure covered their bases, though in this case, it seemed like they were putting an officer in danger if bullets went flying.

  Then the shape turned. Morning light clearly displayed the misshapen head, trapped between wolf and human. The rest of the body hunched and moved as if it too was between forms. Then the werewolf started running across the roof toward the forest.

  “He’s on the roof!” I bellowed as I yanked my wand out of the sheath. I took off after him, angling toward the far end of the strip. Ideally, I should stop him before then, but if he went off the back side of the building, he’d be gone before I could catch up.

  A gunshot drowned out my heartbeat for a moment. I wasn’t sure where the bullet went, but it didn’t slow CJ.

  Two more followed. The magic around him rippled in a way I doubted I could replicate in a controlled setting, never mind while running across a building, and the bullets passed through him.

  “Hold fire! Hold fire! Ineffective due to magic!” I screamed.

  CJ was only two shops away from the end. If I didn’t do something now, he could get away. I had to stop him. “Sowil Haglaz!”

  A spherical containment spell sprang to life around CJ. He slammed into the magical barrier and stumbled back, one hand pressed against the spell.

  Wand up, I slowed to a walk and sucked in air. How far and how long I could run on a treadmill never compared to in the field with the added stresses and adrenaline.

  CJ regained his footing and cocked his head to the side. His entire body angled forward as he leaned into the spell. Around him, the mix of blood magic and the stimulant spell twisted. His hand pushed through the wall of the sphere.

  I swore. It wasn’t going to hold. Without a way to compensate for the spells on him, it would be risky to try any other containment spell.

  He pushed all the way through, and the tip of his tail wagged.

  “Algiz!” The invisible ropes of magic that encircled him pulled his arms against his body and bound his ankles together. It was a long shot, but maybe it would hold long enough for me to think of a more complex spell.

  That hope lived all of two frantic heartbeats before the blood magic started to eat them.

  I shoved more power into the spell. The ropes continued to disintegrate. Forgetting the type of magic on him, I reinforced the ropes with my power, not focused through runes, but through my will and magic.

  For an instant, the spells on him faded, and CJ’s fear beat against my magic. Then the other spells and other magic returned, attacking mine, flowing from CJ to me.

  Before my mind could catch up with what was happening, the ropes melted away, and CJ leapt for the edge of the building. The connection between the two of us shattered, the blood magic attached to the backlash hurling toward me.

  A black blur moving so fast it had to be a non-human SWAT officer dashed to the end of the building.

  The blood magic rushed into me with the force of a concussive blast. My hand spasmed around my wand, dropping it. My butt hit the asphalt. I had just enough control left to roll with the hit and avoid direct head-to-asphalt contact. I didn’t have enough air or time to warn off the SWAT officer before he tackled CJ.

  As the blood magic mingled with my own, my vision flickered. Before it went red and hazy, I saw the magic pour into the swat officer. Now two shifters were contaminated. Just perfect.

  Chapter Fifteen

  A fierce battle raged inside me.

  The blood magic’s corruption spread through my power and from there through my body. By design or accident, it took my vision and other senses first. Time and my physical location fell away.

  The first assault had caught me unprepared, but after that, I dug in. My body, my magic, and it was going to stay mine.

  With more force than finesse, I managed to divide my power and block the blood magic from a third of what was left. It wasn’t much, but I’d make it work.

  The blood magic seemed to have a strange type of intelligence. With almost all of me under its control, sensation started to return. The hard surface under me was most likely the asphalt I’d been on when the blood magic took over. Hopefully that meant not too much time had passed, and I hadn’t done too much damage.

  Next came other parts of my body. My wand was back in my hand. Since my last memory was of it being some distance away, the blood magic had pulled it back to me.

  Sight would’ve been great, but next I reconnected with my legs. Unlike the rest of me, which was under a blanket of not me, a war was still happening in my left leg. The dead spot and its necromancy were holding off the blood magic.

  If I could reach my necromancy without contaminating it, maybe I could figure out a way to use it against the blood magic. It was a long shot, but it was the best option I had right now.

  From the part of me unsullied by the corruption, I formed an arrow with a single mission: to get to my necromancy. Using most of my limited supply of power, I encased it in layer upon layer of unconnected shields. Each one would burn away, leaving pure magic underneath. If I’d made enough of them, the magic under them would reach my necromancy without bringing along the corruption. If not, then I’d get a front seat to see what happened when blood magic controlled necromancy. If that unhappy eventuality came to be, I could time just how fast everyone would kill me. Given the disaster of this week, it was par for the course.

  If breathing had still been under my control, I would’ve held my breath when I released the spell. Instead, I let it go and hoped.

  The shields vanished faster than expected, and by the time it bumped into the edge of the dead area, blood magic coated the outside.

  It burned through the blood magic between it and the dead spot and surged forward.

  The instant my magic and just my magic touched the dead area, my necromancy roared out of its hidey-hole with the force of a winter blizzard.

  For a moment, I was sure I’d made a terrible mistake.

  Then sensation returned to my left leg, or to as much of it as had ever had sensation. The blood magic was gone.

  My necromancy blasted through the rest of me, eating the blood magic wherever it went. It even drifted through my well of magic and chased down every bit of corruption hiding in there.

  Blue sky appeared above me, and soon after, the rest of my senses returned. Ignoring the necromancy continuing to swirl through me and my sudden awareness of a dead raccoon by the road, I pushed myself up.

  My head swam, and the images went out of focus.

  The necromancy settled down, with most of it returning to its hidden retreat. The remainder stayed spread throughout my body and even in my well of magic.

  The images united into one. Two officers were on the ground, blood pooling around them. CJ was gone. Maybe the SWAT on the other side of the mall had gotten him, but my concern was for the people racing for the officers. Even from here, I could see the blood magic on them.

  One of the injured officers twitched and fur appeared over his skin.

  “Narzel Blast.” The earth felt like it tilted under me as I got to my feet. “Sowil.” I added color to it so no one would hit it. On second thought, I added a division to the containment spell so the injured officers could reach each other.

  Still unsteady on my feet, I focused on my goal. Unlike everyone racing for the containment spell holding the two officers, I shuffled toward my car.

  If I could get the rest of my gear, I might be able to purify them and get healing charms working with the magic I had left. Until they were purified, paramedics couldn’t touch them, and the blood magic would twist healing spells.

  “Pine! Take it down!” Mitchell screamed.

  I ignored her and pulled the pouch of purification supplies out of the car. There wasn’t much left, but it would have to do.

  “Take it down, Pine! That’s an order!” Mitchell sounded closer.

  Rather than figure out which charms I needed, I grabbed the bag of them. My body ached, but I wasn’t swaying and managed to jog toward the officers.

  Mitchell met me half way, her cheeks flushed and a vein pulling in her temple. “They’re dying! Take it down.”

  In one half of the shield, a pile of shredded clothing and gear was under a wearbear’s feet as it clawed at the divider.

  I ran faster.

  On the other side, an elf contorted and screamed.

  “Pine, answer me!”

  “Can’t take it down until they’re purified, or it’ll spread.” Feeling the interior division sag under the bear’s attack, I picked up the pace.

  The bag of healing charms ended up abandoned as I rushed to lay a circle of salt around the officers. I ripped the bag for my rune embroidered cloth in my hurry to get it out. Then I had it levitating. With a tweak to the containment spell, the energy could pass but not the officers. I powered up the purification ritual and hoped I had enough to see it through.