It was the same floral pattern of Tessa’s skirt.

A vice squeezed my chest, and I barely kept the panic from choking me. With shaky fingers, I brought the fabric to my nose and inhaled. Tessa’s rose-scented body wash clung to it. It was faint, but even I could detect it.

“They kept her here,” I whispered.

The hunter approached me from behind, prowling forward with silent footsteps. He crouched down and picked something up off the floor. “They were keeping her restrained.”

I glanced around, looking for handcuffs or ropes but didn’t see any. “How do you know?”

He held his hand out and opened his palm. His fingers were long and thick, his hand large. “These are commonly used by the European mafia. And if they were forgotten here, near the bed that held your sister, it’s possible somebody in that organization is behind your sister’s disappearance.”

My lips parted. The objects he held were small and dark. They looked like black oblong marbles. My nose scrunched up. “What are they?”

“Hold your hands out.”

I did as he said, but when I had my arms apart, he pushed both of my wrists together until my hands were side by side.

Tingles ran up my skin, and I could have sworn his fingers lingered on my wrists. His skin was so warm, and I was reminded of what I’d seen, of how he’d turned into a fire-raging wolf.

He pressed something on one of the dark marble objects. A flare of magic whipped out and before I could react, wires wrapped around my wrists at an unnervingly high speed until a dozen bands encircled my limbs making it impossible to pull free.

For a moment, I just stared at my bound hands, before lifting my gaze to his. “You handcuffed me.”

“I did.”

“Why?” I asked, irritation growing in me, but at least it was pushing away my panic.

“Because you asked me to.”

“No, I didn’t. I simply asked what they were.”

He shrugged. “My mistake.”

I struggled, trying to break free, but the wires didn’t budge. My annoyance grew. Tentatively, I called upon my magic, feeling for the volatile beast that had become my power, half expecting it to punch me in the gut, but it responded normally.

If the Fire Wolf was right, and the strange occurrences I’d been experiencing lately were related to other people’s magic, then at the moment it wasn’t drawing on his power. Thank the gods.

I let a flare of power travel down my limbs, then whispered a maximizer spell that would grant me enhanced strength for a few seconds.

“That won’t work.” The Fire Wolf crossed his arms, not looking the least bit perturbed about having a woman handcuffed in front of him as he stood in an abandoned insane asylum.

I nearly snorted. This was probably an average day’s work for him.

I yanked on the cuffs. The wires held, and I yelped when they cut into my skin, digging into my flesh even more.

“They’re spelled to restrain all supernaturals and will tighten the more they’re tested. Most supernaturals learn to stop fighting them by the time their skin is turning blue.” He watched me struggle again, and I swear the bastard was about to laugh. “Most, but not all.”

I sighed and couldn’t stop another wiggle. The cuffs tightened more. “Okay, ha ha. The joke’s on me. I can’t break out of these. Now, get these damn things off of me.”

“Such a shame. I was enjoying seeing you cuffed.”

I blanched and whatever panic or grief I’d felt a moment ago entirely disappeared. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

He chuckled and gave me a wicked grin. “Have you never tried cuffs in the bedroom?”

Okay, my heart did not just skip. I squirmed as a flare of desire ran straight to my core. WTF. Was he . . . flirting with me? I shook my head. No, he was messing with me again, just like he’d been earlier. He was probably doing it to stop the panic he’d scented rolling from me, because the last thing he needed was a hysterical client on his hands. At least his distraction had worked ’cause panic was the last thing I was feeling now.

I watched as the Fire Wolf pulled open a small pouch on his chest harness. “Lucky for you, I have a key to these types of cuffs.” He held up a small silver device that was no larger than a sewing needle. It flared when it touched the marble, and a spark of energy zapped the black ball.

The wires whipped off of me, disappearing as quickly as they’d formed until all that was left was the dark marble objects he’d initially held in his hand.

The Fire Wolf dropped the key into his pouch and the marbles with it before he zipped it closed.

I wondered what else he had in there as I rubbed my wrists. Blood finally flowed back into my hands, and the tingling sensation wore off in a few seconds.

“So how is it that you have a key to those?”

“Like I told you, I’m familiar with the European mafia. I’ve had a few run-ins with them before. Consequently, I’ve collected some of their devices over the years, and I travel with what I need at all times.”

I eyed the other contraptions on his chest harness. “What else do you carry?”

He smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Obviously, or I wouldn’t have asked.”

He chuckled.

I clung to that lighthearted sound, because bantering with the Fire Wolf was the only thing that was helping me to keep it together right now.

I rubbed my arms again as the chill in the air grew. The shadows dipped when the sun went behind a cloud outside. “Do you really think they had those on Tessa? And they had her restrained on this bed?”

“Most likely.”

“But why would the European mafia want her, if it was them who took her?”

“That’s the million-dollar question.”

My stomach lurched as my mind immediately spun in a million different directions, wondering if my sister had been doing anything on the side that I’d been unaware of. Had she made new friends, or gotten involved with people that she shouldn’t have? She loved attention so much so, she would’ve turned a blind eye to a new friend that flattered her, even if that new friend had ties to the mafia.

But how in the hell would she have met them in the first place? It wasn’t like European thugs frequented magic shops in Chicago’s supernatural marketplace.

I took in a deep shuddering breath. “We need to find her. This is getting weirder by the second. When will you be able to scry again?”

“If I eat and get some rest, a couple of hours.”

Even though adrenaline buzzed through my veins, I knew that I needed sleep and food too. We couldn’t keep up this kind of exhausting hunt without fueling our bodies. “So, where to from here?”

“We go back to my base. In a few hours, I’ll scry again, and we’ll see if we can catch up with them on my next locate.”

“And if we do? What are you going to do when we find them?”

A dark, wicked grin spread across his face. “I’ll do what I do best.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 14

We traveled back to Portland using the Fire Wolf’s personal portal. It amazed me, time and time again, that the man had enough magic to transport us so frequently. But he wasn’t infallible. Even he had his limits, as I’d come to learn. Scrying obviously took a huge toll on him.

“Your wall’s not going to eat me this time, is it?” I asked as we stood in the alleyway next to the brick building that hid his lair. I was having a massive sense of déjà vu. The only difference between now and earlier was that it was brighter in the alleyway and there weren’t any junkies lurking around trying to steal my purse.

“As long as you don’t intend to betray me to my enemies.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“No betraying today. Scout’s honor.” I held my fingers up in what I assumed was the Girl Scouts’ or Boy Scouts’ salute.