Themurderer.
A man who had killed my parents, leaving Henry and I without our family, and performed some kind of spell on a little girl to get what he wanted. Who’d killed Thomas and Sarah and broken Daniel’s heart. And left a boy without his father. And kidnapped and hurt Carol and Daniel.
Oh, yeah, this guy was going to pay!
As we pulled onto my street, I saw cars parked all over. These must have been Henry’s gamer friends. And then, I spotted Daniel’s truck blocking the cars in my driveway.
Damn it. If Daniel could drive, he would have called me. Joel must have taken his truck and brought it here. The monster was inside with my brother, some innocent people, and probably Daniel.
My skin crawled. If he hurt them, Karma would go crazy.
Even now, I felt my powers growing under my skin. If I was sure from this distance, and without seeing my target, it would work, I’d let it go. I would release my magic like a storm and hope that it found Joel and made him pay.
But I couldn’t gamble with the lives of the two most important men in my life.
I was about to face down a man who had taken down my parents, two shifters,andmy bear. As much as I wanted to believe my powers would be enough, I wasn’t sure. But Ihadto be sure we could win against Joel. Losing would destroy me.
As soon as we parked, I turned to Deva, knowing what we needed to do. “Take my car, go get the coven. Get back here as fast as you can.”
“You’re not going in there alone!” Deva exclaimed, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Deva--”
“Besides, I already texted the coven as we drove.”
I was shocked. She hated working with the coven, which meant she must realize how bad this situation was.
“Thanks, Deva,” I whispered.
And we both climbed out of the car and ran for the door.
“Here.” She dug a couple of wrapped candies out of her purse. “I keep these in my pocket for emergencies. These will make you…” She waved her hand, trying to find the word. “Stronger, better. More capable? They’re just intended to make you a more powerful you.” She put one in my hand, then grabbed my wrist before I popped the caramel colored candy into my mouth. “They’re strong.”
As soon as I swallowed the first mouthful of caramel flavoring, my body quivered. But then, half a second later, it settled. I felt… mostly normal, just a slight tingling in my stomach, like I’d eaten something that didn’t quite agree with me. I hoped the candies were really as strong as she’d said.
We needed all the help we could get.
We went into the house as quietly as possible to find Henry sitting in the living room playing his video game, unhurt. A wave of relief moved through me as my gaze moved around the room. He wasn’t the only one playing a video game. Four other guys focused solely on the screen while Joel Northmanhimself sat in the recliner, staring at me and Deva. “Hello,” Joel said, a smirk twisting his lips. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Well, that’s not creepy at all..
I glanced from Joel to Henry, who seemed to realize we’d come in. “Hey, sis.” He paused their game and looked from me to Joel, then jumped slightly. “When did you get a gun, Joel?”
Inching forward, I saw what he was talking about. Joel had a gun on his lap… pointed right at Henry. “Don’t move, any of you.”
The rest of the men playing the game figured out something was wrong in an instant. Each of them settled back against the chair or sofa they sat in, wide-eyed and paling fast. “What’s going on?” one of them asked.
“What’s going on,” Joel drawled, “is that Daniel is chained to something heavy, just out your back door, in the water. And the tide is coming in.Fast. Now, what I plan for Henry and his friends won’t kill them. But Daniel? Even that old bear can’t survive underwater...” He lifted a brow, letting his words settle over the room. “Now, you have to understand, I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I know what you can do. So I’m giving you the chance to rescue Daniel, while I do what I do, or to stay here and let him die. Up to you.”
My instinct was to go after Daniel, but Joel had a gun on my brother. What in the world was I supposed to do?
“Is this… is this the guy who killed mom and dad?” Henry asked.
I hesitated, worried he might do something dangerous, but then nodded. My brother needed to know just how grave a situation we were in.
“Go,” Henry said, and there was a look on his face I’d never seen before. “I know what to do.”
“Yeah,” Deva echoed, a dangerous note to her voice. “Get Daniel. I won’t let Henry get hurt.”
