Page 11 of Warwick

“No extended family?”

“He didn’t say. If so, I get the feeling he’s not close to them.” We walked a few more steps and then turned down an alleyway. “He mentioned that those that tried to leave the coven weren’t allowed. Some were forcefully brought back, while others never returned. I have a feeling it’s not because they were able to get away.” This coven sounded like bad news all around. I wasn’t sure exactly how Master Edison planned on addressing things, but I really wanted to be there if he was the one who confronted the coven master. He had a certain way about him, and, well, he was the created warlock.

“Do you have his address?”

“Whose?”

Atticus rolled his eyes at me. “Dominic’s. Do you know where he lives?”

“Oh. Yeah, give me a sec.” I pulled out my phone and opened the notes app. I quickly found Dominic’s home address. He lived in an apartment, but it seemed as if most people did. He had a bit of a commute between home and work, and I had to wonder if that was because he wanted to be away from work or if it was because he lived in a coven house.

“Second floor. Well, even if there isn’t an elevator, at least the stairs won’t be too many.” Atticus sighed. “It could always be worse. He could live on the thirty-eighth floor in a high-rise in New York and the elevator broke.”

I chuckled. “You sound as if you are speaking from experience. But there are taller buildings.”

Atticus snorted. “I am, and that wasn’t even halfway up. But there was the sweetest older lady that lived down the hallway, and she was so upset that the elevator wasn’t working. I was on my way there for a hookup, and she happened to be there. I carried her up thirty-eight flights. It wasn’t an issue for me, but it changed my mood after, and I was no longer interested in hooking up. The guy didn’t take too kindly to that, so I dumped him and left. A week later, I moved to Montana and started working for Alpha War as a sheriff’s deputy.”

I’d say that was fate working in an oddball roundabout way for certain. I’d seen how Atticus was before he was with Brice and how much he’d rounded him out. They were good for each other. I would like a mate of my own, but I knew it would take a very special someone to be able to put up with my grumpy ass. And, well, I wasn’t exactly as good-looking as the other hellhounds. I was overly large, had a naturally resting grump face, and looked like a beast. My hair was unruly, as was my beard. In short, I wasn’t much to look at, and I knew it. I had just always chalked it up to our master having had a bad day when he created me.

“All right,” Atticus said, pulling me out of my own head. “Let’s head over to his place and gather some things for him. If his coven is what it sounds like it is, he’s not going back, so we need to put everything in storage. We’ll gather up a few bags of things to make him comfortable, but otherwise, we should put everything into storage in Montana.

I nodded. There was a secure place for such things that Master Edison had ensured that no trackers could penetrate. Everything would be gone through and cleared, and if such devices were found, they would be destroyed. This wasn’t the first time we’d had to bring large amounts of things from one place to another.

Atticus and I both looked around the alleyway, and when it was clear, we popped close to the address. It was a charming building, like many were, and had a canal as well as several gondolas and other types of boats docked out front. I shook my head, wondering if they actually used that as a means to get from place to place.

When we entered the building, the box on the wall let us know it only houses eight apartments—so two per floor.

“What’s his number?” Atticus asked again.

I glanced at my phone. “2B.”

We took the stairs several at a time, and when we were on the second floor, apartment B was to our left. We heard loud noises coming from it before we even got to the door. Atticus and I looked at each other, both knowing what it meant.

“We’re too late. How quick do you think they got here?” he asked.

“Probably right after Dominic left with me.” I grinned. “Feel like having a little showdown and getting some warlocks to question about certain activities?”

Atticus’s grin was malicious. “Oh yeah. Shift once we’re inside.”

I chuckled, more than ready for this. Atticus tried the door, but it was locked. That was soon resolved, and once we were inside, I shifted. My beast was huge, and in this form, my head came up to Atticus’s, which is most likely why he asked me to shift. My beast was incredibly happy to be out, and it only took seconds for us to locate where the noise was coming from. The living space in front of us was already disheveled, everything having been turned over and most of it destroyed. I followed Atticus, and once we were inside the doorway to the right, we encountered four warlocks.

“Do you really need to destroy everything?” Atticus asked.

One had noticed as we entered the doorway, but at the sight of me, his eyes rounded, and he froze. The other three turned at the sound of Atticus’s voice. Two were smart and mirrored the first’s reaction to seeing my beast with flaming eyes staring at them, while the last apparently was dumb. He tried to throw a magic ball at us, but when it suddenly bounced and flew back to hit him, he hit the floor.

“The council would like to question the three of you,” Atticus said.

Eyes widened, and I growled when one’s hand started to glow purple. Immediately, the color disappeared, and Atticus shook his head. He raised his own hand, and for dramatics, he snapped his fingers. All three were suddenly gone, and I didn’t have to ask where they’d been sent.

I shifted and walked over to the last warlock and sighed. “He’s dead.”

“That’s his own fault. It was his magic ball that killed him. He was trying to kill us, so he got what he deserved.”

I didn’t disagree. It just sucked because our luck would be that he was the one we most likely needed to talk to about things. Oh well.

“Shall we send his body to the council?” I asked. When I looked back at Atticus, he had his phone out. I waited as he typed on it.

“No. Master Edison said to get Dominic’s clothes. He’s asked for his books that are on the small shelf in his bedroom, as well as the box hidden in the wall in his closet. Other than that, he doesn’t want or need anything else.”

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