Loud talking and laughter rolled over the counter, and I realized the crowd was in that space near the back, mostly obscured by the bar itself and sheltered from the doorway. My feet stuck to the floor and a pungent aroma of sick wafted toward me.
I wrinkled my nose. “Your Italian-speaking friend hangs out in here?” I asked.
“No.” He let go of my hand but not my hip and steered me down the bar, not crossing over to where the crowd roared and gabbed, clearly stuffed full to bursting with alcohol.
A stocky man made of muscle came around the corner. An expression of shock and delight crossed his face before he looked back over his shoulder. He knew Emery, and that over-the-shoulder glance indicated he also knew about his precarious situation. That spoke of friendship.
When the man’s gaze drifted to me, his expression turned troubled.
“Joe,” Emery said, his eyes sparkling a little, but the sentiment not enough to bring out a smile. “How goes it?”
“Hey, brother. Long time.” Joe reached a hand over the bar and Emery took it, the two men making large hands look totally normal. “What brings you?”
The sparkle left Emery’s eyes. “I’m here for a favor. I was wondering if that room over the bar is still free?”
“The stockroom, yeah.” Joe glanced at me. “It’s the same as it was, except for a few more boxes. There isn’t much space.”
Emery leaned against the bar and brought me in closer, blocking off my view of the door. “It’ll only be for one day, two tops. We need to lie low, and she…” His words faltered and he looked down at me, a mixture of emotion soaking his gaze: pain, embarrassment, and something else I couldn’t identify warred with loss.
“And she’s not accustomed to sleeping in the park, huh?” A grin spread across Joe’s wide face.
Emery looked away. “We’ll set it up like last time.”
Joe waved the sentiment away, whatever it was. “It’s fine. I didn’t fix the door after last time. It’s still busted. Everyone knows not to mess with my bar.” His voice had turned deep and rumbly, almost like an animal growl. Despite my confusion over what they were talking about, my small hairs stood on end and a strange surge of electricity and adrenaline rushed through my body.
Emery’s gaze snapped down toward me and he moved his hand from my hip to my wrist. The low hum of electricity vibrated between us.
“Keep the animal at bay around her, bro,” Emery said through gritted teeth, his grip tight around my wrist. “Deep breaths, Pe—Little Killer. Try to calm down. Don’t think of defending yourself. Think of…unicorns or something.”
I spat out a laugh, then wiped my hand across the bar in embarrassment. A sheen of white followed my palm, cracking the wood and infusing me with a lovely, earthy feeling that sang in my bones.
The electricity sizzled between Emery and me before some of it spread across my skin. Small prickles of pain brought a strange awareness. I fluttered my eyes as other feelings bumped against me. The chemicals in the lacquer covering the bar. The leather of the stools. The cotton of my shirt. Most importantly, the thick, heavy feeling of the energy all around us, providing the fuel for me to curl some of those ingredients into a marvelous concoction.
But what would I make?
“Just let it simmer,” Emery whispered urgently, his breath against my cheek. “Let that feeling simmer. We’re almost out of here, and then we’ll deal with it. Can you wait?”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Probably,” I said. “Unless someone comes to rob the bar or something, in which case…there’s really no telling what’ll happen.”
Joe was staring at me with a stone face and hard eyes.
“Sorry about the—” I gestured at the bar. Emery snatched my hand out of the air and pulled it toward the other, which he still held. Magic pulled at my center, the string on my ribs taut and painful. Sparks of colors bloomed where our hands touched.
I stared down at it, transfixed, feeling the surge of my heart. The surge of his. All in tune with the natural elements pulsing around us.
“Like I said, we need to lie low,” Emery said in a tight voice. “I can’t have anyone knowing I’m here. We’re here.”
Joe shifted and leaned heavily on the bar, facing the doorway. “The guild knows you’re in town. Which means everyone else knows you’re in town. They know we’re friends from the old days. A few of your old gir—” He cut off and glanced at me. “A few of your old friends told me to tell you to call them if I saw you. I suspect”—I got another glance—“you won’t be wanting to.”
“That’s got nothing to do with me,” I said, trying to throw up my hands. How quickly I’d forgotten the reason they were being held in the first place.
Emery tightened his grip as colors, light, patterns, and texture flowered over our touch and drifted up our arms. It was unlike any of the magic I’d seen before. More nuanced even than Emery’s. More beautiful.
I watched in fascination, tickled where the wisps and strands touched me. A smile spread over my lips, and this time, when I looked up to Emery, he was staring back at me, a dark shadow across his beautiful blue eyes.
“Talk about buzzkill,” I muttered, returning my gaze to the dancing and curling magic.
“I can feel that,” Joe said. “You had better do something to hide it, or just walking down the street will get you found out.”
“I know,” Emery said. “What did you hear?” One by one, the muscles along his sizable frame flexed. In contrast, I was as loose as I’d ever felt, relaxed and open to my surroundings, feeling a strange but delightful magical tune whisper to me, soft and sweet.
“You mean, aside from guild members torturing someone who tried to get out? They’re getting bad, man.” Joe shook his head and shifted uncomfortably. “But as it pertains to you, that you took out three middle-tier mages that were working together,” Joe said. He took a step back and a sheen of moisture covered his eyes, like he was about to start crying. “That your magic is ten times mightier than when you lived in town, which seems about right, judging by the really harsh sting I’m feeling right now. And that something went down at a remote guild office somewhere in the burbs, but the guild is being quiet about it.”
“I found the office and broke in. I didn’t kill anyone. You know me. I don’t want to take down any innocents.”
Joe snickered, but there was no humor in it. “Innocence in the Mages’ Guild—yeah, sure.”
“Are Roger’s people looking for me?” Emery asked.
“No. You’re clear there.” Joe paused, catching the sound of a scuffed shoe near the doorway. I tried to lean back and see, but Emery shifted and blocked my view. A moment later, a burly guy with long arms held a little away from his muscular body, perhaps out of necessity, crossed to the other side of the bar. His gaze was on Joe, his pompous strut ridiculous.
“It’s like a muscle convention,” I said. “And he thinks he’s the big-ticket item.”
“Bear shifters.” Joe crossed his arms. “They cause the most bar fights out of anyone.”
I widened my eyes, straining to look, but the guy was already gone. Then I turned my surprised, bewildered, and possibly a little excited gaze to Joe. “Are you a shifter, too?”
He frowned at me. “Yeah. Why, what’d he tell you?” Joe jerked his head at Emery.
“She was living as a sheltered human until about a month ago,” Emery said. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible with someone like her, but… Well, you’d have to meet her mother.”
“Save yourself the headache.” I turned my wrist in Emery’s grasp, trying to loosen the hold. “What do you turn into?”
“A wolf.” There was that growl again, primal and wild, hinting of lush forest and the scent of a fresh kill.
I smiled, closing my eyes as the air around me sizzled. Spicy green and textured, that was what his magic said to me. In a spell form, I’d read it as protective and loyal, steadfast and trustworthy. Something to help, not hurt. Something to rely on.
I wondered if that changed with his moods, or if his intentions were perhaps different when he was in wolf form.
“Everyone is classifying this as a guild matter,” Joe said, and I could feel that he was ignoring Emery’s earlier request to keep the wolf at bay. At least the magical part of it. “Roger doesn’t have the power to take them down, so he has no choice but to steer clear of anything they’re after. Same with the MLE office. It’s just you and the guild on this one. But Emery…” Joe scratched his scruffy chin and shifted. Muscle rippled along his robust body. “The guild has gotten stronger since you left. More ruthless. No one engages them, because they rule this town. No one can go up against them. This is a battle you can’t win. Even with what’s going on, and even if Roger sent some shifters to help, you’re no match. I know you want closure for your brother, but it’s not worth your life. Or hers. Your brother was a good man. He’d tell you the same thing. You should take your pretty friend and get out of town.”