“Go, baby, go.” Asher watched her fly, then gestured toward a 1969 red Camaro.
“We’ll take my car. It’s faster.”
Indeed it was. Asher peeled out of the parking lot, following my directions toward my woman.
“We’ll get her.” Asher aimed for comfort, but I found I didn’t need it. I knew she was OK. I sensed it in my heart. We’d find her and release whatever hold the Collector had on her.
One mile from the compound, Asher slowly took his foot off the gas when a naked woman standing in the road came into view.
“Is that . . .?” I squinted at the woman, then recognized the black hair and Native American tanned skin of Echo. When she transformed into an animal, she lost her clothes unlike people in the movies who magically appeared with what they had on before. Asher pulled the car to the side of the road, and she walked over not self-conscious about being in her birthday suit. As if by magic, a dress and leather jacket appeared over her bare skin. I glanced at Asher, and he shrugged. I got it. My woman was comfortable being naked, but I’d still prefer to be the only one to see her like that if given the choice.
“So she’s got about twenty guards stationed around the place. Four servants inside, and Hazel is in the dining hall with a redheaded woman. I saw cameras, and the place is locked down pretty tight.” Echo leaned down to Asher’s open window and gave us the scoop.
“You saw Hazel?” I wanted the confirmation, and she nodded.
“Great. Now all we need is a plan. How about you sneak in, Kitten, and eat the Collector?” Asher teased, and Echo’s normally passive expression grew into a smirk.
“I don’t think that’ll work. Remember, she can speak, and you have to listen,” I reminded them.
“Got anything to protect us again her voice?” I asked since Asher’s power was different than ours. While we got our powers from the ancient Greek gods and goddesses, he got his from the Earth . . . wild magic from every living thing on the planet. His coven liked to keep to themselves, but Asher was always the rebel. He also happened to be the most powerful man of his kind, so I grasped onto hope he had some way of helping the situation.
“I could spell a protection charm, but I’m not sure it would hold against your kind.” He ran through the possibilities in his head, then Echo spoke before he could say another word.
“Some animals close their ears when they go into water or to keep bugs out, like otters. They close their nose and ears when descending. You could give yourselves the power to open and close your ears, like built-in ear muffs.”
Asher and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, and then he snapped. A tickling sensation grew in my ears, and I reached up in time to feel my skin stretch over the ear hole.
“Test them out. Try opening and closing them,” Asher said.
This had to be the most bizarre thing I’d ever done in my life. But if it saved me from the Collector’s grasp, then I would practice closing my ear holes for the rest of my life, if needed.
Chapter Thirty- Nine
Maddox
I blew the Collector’s doors off their hinges in a very dramatic fashion that had Asher laughing as we stepped into the luxurious mansion. We’d incapacitated the gate guards, then either slipped by the others around the premises or knocked them out. Echo snuck into the mansion as some creature and was waiting until the right time to strike.
It felt like we were walking into a viper pit. We had to play this with managed anger or the Collector could take Hazel down with her. I followed the halls to the large dining room, thanks to AJ’s blueprints on my phone, and fought the instinct to fall to my knees upon seeing Hazel.
“Welcome, Maddox and friend. Back from the dead, I see.” The Collector feigned joyous shock and I rolled my eyes. A fork clattered to the plate, and my gaze darted to Hazel again. She looked at me with wide eyes like a ghost walked toward her instead of me in the flesh.
“You’re alive?” she whispered, and the Collector patted her hand gently.
“I’m just as surprised as you are. When he said he’d leave you over joining me, I thought I killed him. Turns out he is a good little cockroach.” She smiled, but the venom in her voice appeared.
She told Hazel that I’d chosen to leave her? My blood boiled, and the air in the room whipped around.
“Easy,” Asher warned as quietly as possible.
“Well, this is going to be a fun evening, isn’t it?” The Collector set down her eating utensils and leaned over to Hazel, then pointed to me. Her eyes widened, before she stood. I wanted her to come to me, but a chill creeped up my spine from what the Collector whispered in her ear. By the way Hazel chewed on her lip nervously, her gaze darted around like she searched for an escape. I’d say it wasn’t good.
As she slowly trudged toward me, I assessed her physically and found nothing of concern. A tinge of relief touched my soul that her body hadn’t been tortured. Asher tensed beside me, feeling the unease radiating off of Hazel.
“Enough tricks. She’s leaving, and you’re going to prison,” I said, and the Collector simply grinned, not stopping the beautiful woman who finally stopped her movement one foot away from me. The scent of her hit me like a cool breeze, and my fingers twitched to touch her.
“She told me you chose to leave me,” she whispered and my chest hurt.
I opened my mouth to speak the truth but she curled back her fist and aimed right for my face. I dodged her punch, just in time, but she kept coming.
