Page 18 of Stolen Magic
Freaked out because Char was acting possessed, my head swiveled so I could see if anyone was staring at the two crazy women. I wanted to be ready to run if anyone called the cops. Last thing I needed, on top of mages and vamps coming after me, was the police.
“Char, we can come—”
The door cracked open a sliver, cutting off my protest. Although sun was blasting outside, it was pitch black inside the house, which made it difficult to see who was behind the slightly ajar front door. It stayed like that a long second before it swung open, and Char stormed inside like her tail was on fire. With a gasp, I dashed after her. I had no idea who this Damian character was, so I wanted to be close if he attacked her. If anyone tried to break my front door with their fists and killed my doorbell, I’d attack them for sure.
“Char, darling. What a pleasant surprise,” came a smooth, husky drawl from my left, and like an idiot, I jumped away from it.
There was a dim light coming from what I assumed was a lamp but later found out was some sort of a plant I’d never seen before. The low glow cast shadows over the sharp planes of the man’s face, turning what I guessed was handsome into something sinister and straight out of a Dracula movie. My magic churned at the center of my chest, readying to blast him if he so much as twitched in our direction. One look at the lit-up vegetation told me everything I needed to know about our host-slash-hacker.
“Char, I thought your friend was a human.” The accusation was clear in the tone of my voice.
“You assumed he was a human,” Char huffed while Damian’s grin grew as if it pleased him that he’d surprised me. “I never said he was.”
“And you brought a friend. How delightful,” the man in question purred as if pleased at hearing the tone of his voice.
“If I blast your arroga—”
“Allie, no.” Char didn’t let me finish my threat before jumping between us with her arms raised like a basketball player. “He is a pro at getting on your nerves, but he does that when he doesn’t trust people. The same way you act all uppity when you don’t know someone. I swear, he is not an asswipe.”
I squinted my displeasure at her.
“Damian, this is Alaska. My best friend. I’ve told you about her.” She spoke to him but didn’t look away from me.
“My apologies, Alaska.” The change in tone and attitude gave me whiplash. I craned my head sideways to give Damian a better look around Char. “I don’t like surprise visits if I don’t expect people.” His glare was aimed at the back of my friend’s head.
“Damian, we need your help.” Char’s words had him stiffening, and the glare was replaced by genuine worry. She turned to face him, and I gaped while he worriedly searched her face. “We need you to track a call made on a burner phone. If you can’t, the chances are Allie and I might get killed after tomorrow midnight.”
I gasped right along with Damian.
“Me.Imight die.” For some reason, I felt compelled to sooth the horror written all over his face. It would be obvious to a blind person that he cared for her.
“We will both die if it comes to that,” Char told him calmly as if we were discussing the weather. Damian was already moving deep into the house, calling us to follow with a flick of his fingers over his shoulder.
That was how we ended up with a druid helping us stay alive.
Chapter Fifteen
“Ididn’t think there were any druids in LA.” I stared at the line of monitors spread around a tall gamer’s chair, and the entirety of Damian’s basement reminded me of some scene from the Matrix.
“There are none.” The pointed look he gave me over his shoulder drilled his meaning into my brain until I gave him a cautious nod in return.
“Right.” Swallowing thickly, I dared a glance at Char, but she was staring at her twisting fingers.
Damian stretched his arm in my direction and opened his hand palm up, though he didn’t turn his head from the monitors, the fingers from his other flying over the keys of the keyboard. With a shaking hand, I dropped the burner phone in his outstretched palm and sucked in a breath when he snatched it like a fly trap.
According to MPO, there were only a handful of druids left in the world. Long lived, they were the loners of the supernatural world and didn’t mingle with anyone but others of their kind, and they all needed to be surrounded by nature so they could maintain their powers. Earth magic was their specialty, and from what little I’d read about them, they could wield it so well that it could be used to battle anyone, no matter how powerful they were. Druids were revered for their ability to open portals between realms as well as anywhere in the world. Which, thanks to power-hungry monsters who used to capture them to use them for notorious purposes, was the main reason most of them were dead. That’s why they hid and never announced themselves to anyone.
How did Char become a friend with one in the middle of a metropolis?
“This might take a while,” Damian said while his fingers danced over the keys. My burner phone was plugged into a tower that was placed close to his thigh, a cord curling between them. “You might want to take a seat.”
Without a word, I looked around and shuffled to the corner of the room where a plastic chair was wedged between some boxes. Char moved to a wingback chair opposite me and plopped on it with a sigh. She still refused to meet my eyes.
Curiosity got the better of me.
“How do you two know each other?” Damian’s fingers paused over the keyboard, and Char’s head ducked so low she almost folded in half.
“Damian is one of the suppliers we order herbs from for our store,” my friend said woodenly from behind the curtain of her hair. If I didn’t have a hairline, I had no doubt my eyebrows would’ve crawled all the way to the back of my head. “He’s been supplying us with them for a little over a year.”
