“She might. I wouldn’t put it past her,” I said.
She could be lying in wait for all we knew. I’d never wanted to nab a perp so badly.
“Do you feel any dark witch magic?” Tianna asked me, her eyes lit up with curiosity, and I realized I was still in training.
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and let my magic filter out like little fingers, brushing up against the various energy strands inside of the gym, just as Tianna had taught me. When I felt a sickly, heavy energy, I recoiled and snapped my eyes open.
“I feel a dark magic and bad intentions ringing throughout my bones. The witch is most definitely inside,” I said.
Tianna considered me with approval in her gaze. “Yes, I think she is too. I think the siren and the witch are waiting for us.”
Fuck.Now I was glad we’d brought such a big crew.
“So does she know we’re coming?” Molly asked, starting out toward the entrance with the rest of us.
“I’m not sure about that,” Tianna replied. “But she might, because she’s in the most powerful place of all for her right now.”
“The pool,” Cass guessed.
“Bingo, sugar plum.”
“Great. She’s got a gazillion gallons of water at her disposal. Everyone, make sure to keep your heads above water, literally.” I patted the katana slung across my back, then my gun just to make sure, while Cass unzipped his fanny pack and passed me a few of Gran’s magic vials.
“Once we have eyes on her,” Jack said, “we’ll surround her and come in hard. Let’s take her down before she has the chance to cause too much trouble.”
But one look at my companions told me they were thinking the exact same thing I was. There was a fat chance in hell that this siren was going down without a fight. Even if she wasn’t ready for us, she’d throw everything she had at us the moment she spotted us.
Shoulders back, my mouth a firm line, I led us toward the scent of chlorine. Even from across the street, I knew exactly where to go. My kitsune gift of enhanced smell was coming in handy.
‘We’re going in,’I told Brock, hoping I wasn’t too far away to use the pack link.‘I’ll check in after.’And then, because I had a really shitty feeling about all this, I added,‘I love you.’It couldn’t hurt to say it one more time, especially if it might be the last.
By the time we reached the outside emergency exit to the pool, Brock hadn’t responded and I couldn’t tell if he’d heard me.
While Tianna stepped forward to do some B&E magic on the door, I smiled at Cass. He smiled back, doing a good job of pretending he wasn’t terrified of something awful going wrong.‘We’ve got this, my girl.’
‘We sure as hell do,’I said back.‘You’re the best BFF ever.’
‘Right back atcha, Ev. Let’s kick some siren ass.’
Just this morning I’d been hit with a vampire’s killing curse, and now I was siren bounty hunting. Baby mama needed a nap once all this shit was done.
Tianna yanked open the door. The second I stepped foot inside, Haru and Reo drew their katanas and moved in front of me.
We’d walked straight into a trap. And from the malicious smirks the three witches with Calista were wearing, they could see right through Tianna’s concealment spell.
They had us right where they wanted us.
Fuck.
Things were about to get ugly.
12Throwdown
All three ofthe most wanted witches stood before us. Calista floated in the pool behind them with a grin on her face.
Fuck. Fuck. Triple fuck.
No humans were in the pool room; they’d obviously cleared it beforehand, anticipating our arrival. I hoped no one had been killed in the process. This was going to be a total shit show. Without waiting for a signal, Haru and Reo leapt into battle, swords raised.
