With that, I turned and made my way back into the cabin, leaving Daniel staring after me.
* * *
Three hours had gone by and I was practically pacing a trackinto the floor of the cabin. Daniel had done the boundary spell—he had walked the entire perimeter, muttering an incantation under his breath. Even without any magic of my own, I had felt it snap into place like a wave of static electricity rolling over me—and it was full dark now.
Reed hadn’t come back.
But if I focused on it, I could feel his presence, like I had an internal compass and he was true north. The idiot wolf was somewhere nearby. Maybe a mile or two away. And moving quickly. I would have bet the farm that he was headed into the woods.
Alone, most likely.
I knew I should wait for him. That was the smart thing to do. It was a dumb move to head into the forest without backup, especially after I’d been warned not to do exactly that.
But the idea of Reed alone in the dark with monsters made up my mind.
I crossed the room to the kitchen table where I had set my duffel. I unzipped the side pocket and pulled out the amulet.
It was gaudy, with a large blood-red stone set in gold. There were markings etched into the gold around the stone, a bunch of witchy symbols I didn’t recognize. It felt heavy in my hand. The stone should have caught the overhead light, but it didn’t gleam or sparkle. Instead, the amulet seemed to drink the light in.
Charming.
I slipped the amulet over my head for the first time, expecting… something. Fireworks. Sparks of light. A poof of smoke. Swirls of magic.
Nothing happened.
Except the amulet felt heavy and restrictive against my chest. Kind of the way Kevlar feels.
I donned my jacket, which I had slung over the back of the wooden chair. It hid my holster nicely. My service weapon was loaded with silver bullets.
I had first acquired the bullets when Cole and Thierry’s maker had been threatening to destroy them. Cole had tried to hide his mate, Eli, away in a luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and I’d been there to help protect him. When Magnus had broken into the hotel room, attempting to kill Eli and his sister, I had fired at him multiple times. While I hadn’t hit him, I had made him pause long enough that Sadie, a vampire from Seattle assigned to protect us, had gotten him on the defensive momentarily. Given that Magnus had been an ancient vampire, I still felt pretty good about that.
Now, my gun wasalwaysloaded with silver bullets.
And why not? They made vampires essentially powerless, and they worked on humans, too. According to Cole, who had ensured I had a large stock of them before he left town, silver worked on most supernatural creatures to some degree. Something about it being an inherently magical metal.
If there was a monster out there, I liked my chances of being able to tag it before it could get me. Or Reed.
I didn’t want to examine where that last thought came from. But already, the idea of anything happening to Reed was repellent.
Tapping into the connection between us, I let it guide my steps to the door. The door swung outward when I opened it.
“Here goes nothing,” I muttered. Maybe the amulet wouldn’t work on boundary spells?
I stepped over the threshold easily, feeling only a slight resistance. Like stepping through an invisible membrane.
Huh. Weird.
The commune was dark and quiet. Two cabins had lights on. The first belonged to Daniel, who wasn’t outside keeping watch—probably confident I wouldn’t have a way around his spells. I wasn’t sure who the other cabin belonged to, but it probably wasn’t Reed’s.
Letting the connection pull me forward, I walked through the commune, cloaked in darkness.
The pull led me to the tree line at the top of the ridge, just beyond the last of the cabins. Glancing behind me and finding no one there, I took a deep breath and stepped into the forest.
The woods were dark.
I’d only gotten a few steps in and already, it was damn near impossible to see anything. I pulled out my keychain and took hold of the little portable flashlight I’d purchased years ago. It sat on my key ring, along with my multitool. I never left the house without being prepared. Especially now that I knew the world was a lot more dangerous than I had imagined.
I flipped the beam on. The flashlight wasn’t as strong as a department-issue light would’ve been, but it was enough to guide me over the fallen trees and through the underbrush.
