Cipher

We need to destroy that stuff now.”

“Here?” Mackenzie asked. “Or do you need supplies? Or backup?”

“Have to poke at it to be sure.” He took the collar and charm from Kat and turned them over in his hands. “If it has protections, I might need Mariko’s help. Together, we could short those out. The likelier scenario is that no one ever bothered with that because they didn’t anticipate anyone wanting to destroy it.” He huffed out a sigh. “We wizards are a damn self-important lot.”

“I’ll get anyone you need,” Andrew whispered. Just so long as it got done.

Mackenzie touched her husband’s shoulder. “So go poke at it. We’ll be right here, and we’ll track down whatever or whoever you need.”

He headed off toward the converted—and warded—supply closet in the corner of the warehouse, and Andrew faced Mackenzie with his best grim look. “Hit me with it, Brooks. I can take it.”

Mackenzie didn’t look away from him. “Kat? You want to go help Jackson?”

She looked like she wanted to flee, but she held her ground. “Andrew?”

There were so many things he needed to say and ask, and no fucking time. “It’s okay, sweetheart.

Mackenzie likes me. She’ll probably only mostly kill me.”

It made her laugh, even if it was choked and died after a startled moment of sound. “Well, as long as you’re only mostly dead… I’ll be with Jackson.”

When she was gone, Mackenzie raised both eyebrows. “If I were you, I’d have her in the supernatural version of witness protection by now, and I’m not even suffering from testosterone poisoning. Whatever this thing is—” She waved her hand, taking him in from head to foot. “I’m not buying it. What gives?”

“I can’t shuffle her off like that without me,” he answered as he made his way over to the refrigerator in the corner. “After I get this taken care of, sure. Until then…”

“Wolves.” She shook her head. “You never just grab your people and run. You’ve got to save the world on your way.”

“Comes with the territory.” He cracked open a soda and snorted. “Literally.”

“Jackson’s my territory. That’s the long and short of it. And Kat…” She trailed off. “Shit, Andrew, there’s nothing I can say there that’s a damn bit of my business. But Jackson loves her like she’s his baby sister, and I’ve seen how wrecked she’s been. Just tell me you know what you’re up against.”

He’d thought he had a handle on it for the first time since waking up at Alec’s, shivering and overloaded on scents and sounds he didn’t understand. He and Kat were finally communicating, getting close to figuring out what the hell they were going to do to move beyond it, and now…

Now they could be starting all over again, square one, because Kat had had to do it again—use the empathy she thought of as nothing more than a burden as a lethal weapon.

So he told Mackenzie the truth. “I don’t know. I thought so, but I don’t know.”

Sympathy filled her eyes. “Honestly? She’s surrounded by overprotective badasses. I think maybe she’s trying to prove she’s an adult by turning herself into one, even if it breaks her.”

If it were as simple as that, it’d be easy to deal with. “It’s not about proving it to other people, Mac.

It’s about her.”

“And what about you?” Mackenzie hopped up onto the counter and crossed her legs, the pose deceptively casual when her energy pulsed with what she was—a cat deciding if she wanted to pounce.

“You were an architect when I met you. Now you make Rambo look like a weenie.”

“For your information, I was a badass architect. Not that much has changed.” A lie, but just a tiny one.

“Guns and fighting, that’s all. I probably needed to learn it anyway.”

“Uh-huh. And I saw what you did with it.” She gestured, taking in the building around them. “You’re doing good, you know. When I found out what I was, Jackson had to explain the shapeshifter world to me.

And it scared me worse than knowing there was a crazy Seer out to get me, because it was pretty damn hopeless. You’re changing that. Maybe not for cougars and lions and coyotes…but it’s a start.”

She was saying the sorts of things that always made him uncomfortable, and Andrew fought not to fidget. “I’m doing what Alec asked me to do. It’s not exactly heroic.”

“Tell that to the people who have new clinics in their cities. Alec can only get his work done because no one dares screw with him while you’re watching his back.”

“Maybe, but all that makes me is good backup.” Which was just fine with him.

“Tell me again why Kat’s not in a bomb shelter somewhere?”

“Because I’m not letting her out of my sight. Try to keep up, Mac.”

She flipped him her middle finger with a cheerful grin. “Why aren’t both of you in a bomb shelter somewhere, smartass?”

No matter what, it kept circling around to that question, and you either got the answer or you didn’t.

Until the night he’d almost died, he hadn’t. Now, he couldn’t imagine blowing off the responsibility, even if it meant sacrificing his own wants. He wasn’t the first, and he hoped he wouldn’t be the last.

The crowd at Mahalia’s was typical for a Wednesday night. Led Zeppelin spilled out of the jukebox, almost drowning out the drone of chatter and the clack of pool balls. Andrew scanned the room and spotted Julio and Anna by one of the pool tables. “Over there,” he said, low in Kat’s ear.

She pivoted, then relaxed when she saw Sera bending over the pool table to line up a shot while Miguel watched. “Everyone’s here,” she said, so relieved that she might as well have said, Everyone’s safe.

He laid his hand on the small of her back. “Let’s go give them the heads-up.”

Sera completely missed her shot as they approached, sending the cue ball sailing past everything else on the table to slide neatly into a corner pocket. She straightened with a sigh that turned into Kat’s name.

“I thought you guys were never going to get here.”

Kat jerked her head toward the bar, where Mackenzie had stopped to talk with the manager. “Jackson was doing his thing.”

“Took a while, but we got it done.” Jackson accepted the beers Anna offered and passed one to Mackenzie.

Kat shook her head when offered a beer and glanced at Julio. “Is Patrick in the back? We should probably talk.”

“He’s in the office,” Anna said, already heading toward the hall.

It was eerily quiet in the converted stock room behind the office. Magical soundproofing kept all the noise of the bar out, and would ensure the details of their conversation remained private.

Julio, for one, didn’t wait to start that conversation. “The thing’s dead, right? The collar?”

“As a doornail.” Kat leaned against the door, looking like she’d rather be out at the pool table with Miguel and Sera. Fractures had begun to appear in her icy calm almost as soon as Jackson laid the inert metal on his workbench, declaring it well and truly destroyed.

On the other side of the room, Patrick snapped his phone shut. “I put the word out on this cult as soon as Ben gave me the name, and he’s starting to get some intel back. Might as well find their nest and burn them out once and for all, right?”

“That’s it, then.” Anna hopped up to sit on the table along the wall. “We stay on our guard, just in case, and finish them off.”

“That’s it,” Jackson agreed.

Andrew stepped to the middle of the room. “I’ll call Alec in the morning. The cult members brought wolves with them, which means the Conclave might want their pound of flesh.”

“They can have it.” Kat closed her eyes. “The worst part is over, though. They can’t build their little psychic army any time soon.”

“Calls for a celebration, right?” Jackson drained half his beer and wrapped his arm around Mackenzie.

“Keep your eyes peeled. If anything happens, raise the alarm.”

Julio filed out after them, and Anna followed suit. Patrick paused to squeeze Kat’s shoulder. “Chin up, Katherine. You did good.”

“Thanks, Patrick.” To someone who didn’t know her, the smile might have looked real. Patrick seemed to