Page 46 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

Perhaps it was all in my mind, but I had noticed a solid decline in their luck ever since we’d killed Chadwicke. Even when we’d gotten the drop on the first two before everythingwent to shit, it hadn’t been so easy. Not that it was particularly easynow,but things did seem to work in our favor more often than not. It seemed like the universe was correcting itself after a warlock had abused his powers for far too long. Who knew, maybe his patron thought it a fair comeuppance.

Whether balance was restoring itself or not, after a few minutes, America and I reached the door of the sitting room. Sure enough, I could hear two sets of heartbeats and smell that familiar scent of their family’s villainous blood. My inner wolf responded instantly, baring its teeth. Bloodlust surged up in me, but I tamped it down. Not because the brothers didn’t deserve it or because I planned to go easy on them, but because I couldn’t afford to lose my cool right now. There were too many things in motion, and I was sure as soon as we attacked, guards would come running from everywhere. Sure, we had our threefold plan to help us, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be a hard-fought battle.

America and I exchanged one last look, then I opened the door.

I probably shouldn’t have been, but I was a bit surprised when I was greeted by a large, well-decorated landing rather than an actualliving room.Was their sitting area really two floors tall? Why would that ever be necessary?

Leaning in, I looked one way, then the other. There was indeed stairs on either side. I couldn’t see all the way down the stairs, but I could make out the tops of a couple of heads that had to be more security. Well, I hadn’t exactly expected to find the brothers completely on their own, but it would have been a lovely surprise if that had been the case. I hadn’t sensed or heard their heartbeats, so they had to be on some sort of magical suppressant. Or perhaps they were creatures that didn’t have an audible biological rhythm. Granted, I had never heard of any like that, but I’d also never heard of lovely gardenersspontaneously gaining the ability to control plants, and that had already happened.

Crouching, I crept closer to the banister at the end of the landing, peeking over it. One of the brothers were in the room, but where was the other one? The heartbeat I had picked up close to him was actually one of his security, meaning we’d have to fight different species, and I would have to figure out on the fly what they were. Not exactly surprising as that was how it had been at the gala, but it would have been nice to be able to scent most of them like I could with other shifters. But with only one of them present, did we strike now, or wait for the other brother to arrive?

America and I exchanged yet another look, and I could tell she was wondering the same thing. She had a very expressive face. Or perhaps I’d gotten to know her well enough in the time we’d spent together.

Before either of us could decide, the brother spoke. It took me a few seconds to identify him from my position, but I realized it was Millicent, the one who insisted on being called William.

“Fuck! I’m out of wine. Where is that serving girl?”

“Most of your personal staff has been split up amongst your residences to make sure they couldn’t all be freed en masse in case there was an attack,” the security guard with the heartbeat murmured next to him. “That’s the same reason we’ve taken most of the enthralled shifters down to holding cells and only have loyal ones currently active on staff.”

“Fuck, you’re right,” the whining warlock groaned, dropping his head back onto the couch like he was truly put out. It struck me as such an odd thing to do for a grown man who was anywhere between fifty and a hundred-and-forty years old. I could never remember the order of the brothers or their ages. Especially since they all looked like they were in their late twenties. I was well aware that in addition to their boons they’dgotten from their patrons, they all had an unnaturally long life similar to that of shifters. Granted, it was nothing like their mother, who had been alive multiple centuries, but it was far more enhanced than it should have been for simple warlocks.

“It’s fucking disgusting that my siblings’ incompetence means I have to live like a barbarian in this cesspool!”

Cesspool? That was rich.

Literally, actually, as it turned out.

“Open the door and tell the first staff member you see to get me some fucking wine! If I’m going to live like a peasant, I at least want to be drunk for it!”

The security guard nodded, then I heard footsteps beneath the landing. I was so focused on the conversation I didn’t realize the possible ramifications until the door opened and I heard the now invisible guards speak.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Oh, uh, I was trying to find the bathroom.”

That was when I had to grit my teeth. It seemed our good luck had run out, because I instantly recognized that voice as Chiga’s distinctive, impossibly deep timber.

We were definitely made.

“Oh, great!” Millicent said, throwing his hands in the air like he was a Broadway actor. Maybe he was already drunk. It was a shame warlocks couldn’t succumb to alcohol poisoning. Or maybe they could if I tried really,reallyhard, like jamming a wine bottle into his throat and drowning him with it. It was always good to have options. “Another idiot! This is what happens when you take away all of my trained staff! We’re left with these incompetents!”

“We’re trying to protect you, sir.”

“I know that, but it doesn’t mean it sucks any less. Go on, you idiot! I’m sure you’ve got enough brain cells in that giant skull of yours to find the wine rack in the old larder beneath the kitchenand fetch me a bottle. I trust you’re at least literate enough to read the label?”

No way. Were we actually going to get away with it? I thought for sure the moment they saw the hulking giant that was Chiga they would instantly know something was up. But it seemed that taking all the shifters and his enthralled subjects from him had really hampered Millicent and his security detail. Maybe if he wasn’t so whiny, he wouldn’t be distracting the head of his team from a very suspicious situation.

Or maybe this security guard wanted something to happen to his boss. It certainly was an interesting theory, although one I couldn’t explore at the moment.

“I can read,” Chiga said almost uncertainly, and bless him for leaning into Millicent’s assumption of his intelligence. I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering he was a professional mercenary and likely had gotten into some awkward situations a few times in his career, but still, I appreciated it.

“Prove it. Wine now. Chop, chop.”

“Yes, sir.”

I heard Chiga take a step away, and maybe one more step, before a different door on the lower floor burst open and what had to be the very last brother strode in.

“I swear toBacchusthe water quality—” He froze almost instantly, not even finishing his sentence. “Who the fuck is that?”

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