Page 107 of Bright Dark Curses

I put my phone away and scanned the open space between the trailers and trucks. Now we simply needed the final piece of the trap to drop: the Council witch.

We had rigged a camera courtesy of one of Alex’s buddies inside the trailer to film McKee cleaning up the place, leaving something to implicate Ethan while he wasn’t there, or do any kind of magic, but we didn’t have much hope of it catching much. Magic wouldn’t be captured, and it’d be easy for McKee to explain away messing with Lee’s trailer—curiosity, trying to find something to sell, and so on. All much lesser demeanors than murder.

Inside the trailer, a phone flashlight turned on, and McKee’s silhouette moved behind the drawn curtains. None of us had wanted to go inside the trailer and pull them open. Better not mess with a possible murder scene.

As the minutes passed and the flashlight inside the trailer turned off, I began to get angsty. What if the Council witch didn’t show up in time? We’d agreed to let our UNSUB go and follow him rather than do a paranormal citizen arrest. But now that we had him here, clearly guilty, it didn’t sit right to just let him go. What if he slipped out of reach like Johnathan Smythe had back with Grandma’s spellbook’s incident? I didn’t want to put a bounty hunter job on McKee; I wanted him caught and secured and?—

Dru nudged me and tilted her head toward the open space. A smaller, female figure was creeping along the trailers, using the deepest shadows, and I recognized her as she crossed a pool of dim light.

The Council witch had arrived.

I gave silent thanks to the universe. Behind us, Hutton grabbed our arms and pulled us back, in case the witch checked the openings between the trailers on this side. The last thing I saw before we slipped around the back of the trailer hiding us was the Council witch taking out a small vial from a pocket in her jacket. She was going to put down a ward before going in, like I had. I hurried to text Ian about her presence.

We waited by the back of the trailer, tension thickening the atmosphere until I could all but bite a chunk off it. Ambient sounds filtered through—some animal scurrying, a squeaky piece of metal moving back and forth in the small breeze, the distant noises of traffic.

I checked my phone. Three minutes had passed. It had to have been enough for the witch to put down a ward and inspect the surroundings to make sure nobody was around.

As if reading my mind, Hutton slipped back into the narrow opening between trailers. Dru and I followed, trying to be as silent as possible.

The Council witch was finishing checking the sides of Lee’s trailer, crouching so she wouldn’t cross the windows. The fact she could do that after putting down a ward filled me with awe. Most witches could without problem, of course, but that didn't mean it didn’t deserve some well-earned appreciation.

At last, she moved back to the entrance of the trailer, took out another vial from a pocket, jerked the door open, and rushed inside.

Time stopped. As did our breathing.

Then someone shouted, and all hell broke loose.

THIRTY-ONE

A loud crash reverberated through the thin walls of the trailer, then another. A flash of light silhouetted two moving figures against the curtains, then it was gone.

Hutton began to strip.

“What are you doing?” I asked, scandalized.

“What do you think I’m doing?” he snapped, throwing his shirt away and tugging off his undershirt.

“Let the man do his job,” Dru said, an appreciative note in her tone.

Right. He couldn’t shift as fast if he was dressed, and shifters had more protection against magic in their animal form.

“I’m only shifting if absolutely needed,” Hutton warned in a bit of a growl as another crash came from inside the trailer. Someone’s coffee mug, from the sounds of it. “I don’t want to answer the Council’s million questions.”

I tugged at Dru’s elbow and forced her to turn around. She complied. Reluctantly.

“What about Mark?” I chided.

She snorted. “Mark doesn’t own my eyeballs.”

Another shout forced our attention back to the trailer. Was the Council witch okay? I worried my lower lip. Did we need to intervene? Send Hutton’s wolf in there?

“I’m going to cover the other side,” Dru said. She slipped from our hidey-hole and crossed the empty space between the trailers, giving my ward line a wide berth. Once she got to her new position around the last trailer across from me and Hutton, I stepped into better light and gave her an okay sign.

She returned the sign, then turned toward Lee’s trailer. I followed her lead, my palms tingling as the desire to do something about the fight returned. What if McKee hurt the Council witch? What if he was too powerful? Hutton had said McKee’s parents were well known for their wards, and the pack would only accept the best and most powerful magic to help guard their territory.

“Maybe we should go in,” I murmured, running my hands up and down my jeans. “Maybe the Council witch needs?—”

The door of the trailer slammed open, and a figure darted out. McKee. He made it three steps before the Council witch’s ward on the floor lit up and froze him in place.

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