Page 72 of Witches Be Damned

Fuck. I did it again.

I leaned back in the conference chair, rubbing my temples to ease the throbbing in my forehead and behind my eyes. “Remind me of our objective?”

Talon let out a long breath from his nose. “Did you hear any of it? We can’t afford any mistakes.”

I pressed my face into my palms and scrubbed. “I’ve got a headache. Just get me a Berocca and I’ll be fine.”

Talon looked ready to dismiss me from the team as he clicked a button on his projector and it beeped, deactivating the screen. Instead he cleared the Tollens from the room with an order to get ready to depart.

A small, warm palm came to rest on my arm. Luna’s. “Have you slept or eaten since Astra left, big guy?”

The name was like a dagger of ice to the heart.

“Not much.” I crunched my hands into fists.

Deafening silence haunted my cabin. The pillow and sheets in my bed as well as the sofa smelled of her. Cold consumed my bed and heart. Her coffee mug sat in the dish drying rack. Half the chocolates Luna gifted her remained in my pantry. Little Wolf clouded all my thoughts, and I couldn’t escape her or the emptiness in my soul.

“Maybe you should sit this one out and rest,” Luna repeated her earlier suggestion.

“No, I need the distraction.” I patted her hand, grateful she cared for my well-being when it gradually faded like my mate’s scent.

She glanced at Gable, who fished around his bag, removed a small sachet, and lifted from his seat, going to the urn at the back of the room.

He came back and dropped a steaming plastic cup in front of me. “Drink this when it cools. It tastes like a dog’s ass, but it’s better than that sugary crap for your headache and fatigue. It’ll kick in in about thirty minutes when you digest it.”

I dragged the cup closer, my nose wrinkling at the scent of herbs soaking in lukewarm water. “Thanks.” I threw the medicine down my throat.

I didn’t initially trust the ex-snake, but the shifters implicitly trusted him, as well as my mate’s best friend, and he set up protective spells around my cabin without taking a cent. Gable was a man of worth who fought for the helpless. Someone I trusted and wanted on my team.

“Run me through the plans again,” I croaked, holding back a wretch.

Talon gathered a ledger from the table and deposited it in front of me. “This was lifted from the auction house. It contains the addresses of sellers and buyers as well as storage and transport warehouses.”

Memory flashed of being intercepted by vamps on our last mission to arrest vendors and purchasers. A coppery scent clogged my throat. Tall, lanky vampires bursting into the room. The burn of narcotic sinking into my skin from the dart they shot me with. Luna and Blaze shouting for me as the portal blinked shut. I slammed my eyes closed, trying to shake off the moment of my capture.

“Raze?” Luna’s palm found me again, the imprint small and warm, reminding me of Little Wolf’s, grounding me and breaking me out of the memory’s spell.

“I’m good,” I croaked again.

“We’ve checked most of them out while you and Astra got reacquainted,” Talon informed me. “Our source tells me several key players are meeting at this address this afternoon.”

“What for?” I cracked the lid on an unopened bottle of water and swallowed half down.

“That’s why we’re checking it out.” Talon closed the ledger. “They’re communicating plans in code as they suspect they’re being watched. Our source is decoding it for us.”

“Who’s your source?” It mattered when I refused to walk into another trap and be drugged and kidnapped. “And are they trustworthy?”

“A hacker I work with,” Gable informed me.

“His info checks out,” Talon backed him up. “The biker hasn’t let us down yet, if that’s what you’re asking.”

It was exactly what I was asking. “Biker? One of Castor’s friends?”

“That’s him.” Gable folded his arms over his chest. “I forgot you met last week.”

The pressure in my chest backed off, knowing that they worked with an associate they trusted to complete multiple tasks such as healing my mate and me.

I turned to address Blaze and stabbed my finger at the desk. “In the Guardians, we don’t leave a teammate behind if something happens.”

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