“I never said that.” The whisper was barely audible even to my sensitive ears.
“They did.”
“I know, I didn’t mean for that to happen. I thought you and I were a fling, fun. Not what we became.”
“Fine, we got too involved. Now we aren’t. We have to go save your people.”
“Fine, we will get them, but we should deal with this between us afterward.”
“There isn’t anything between us.”
Chapter Seventy-Seven
After several Google searches, only a few annoying messages to Router, the cat’s local computer geek to find where the warehouse was, and aerial pictures, I found several ways in and out of the zone. It would be better to search the area at night, I could blend better since noontime jaguars in San Antonio would cause quite a stir. I would avoid trouble and being exposed all in one shot. I sent out for groceries since I was not going to have the time to be shopping before hunting bad guys and then getting back to work for the fight ring on Friday night. Right now, I was waiting between computer searches, food deliveries and sending one of the cubs to get clothing for Caleb. He spent time adding a warding spell around my apartment complex and mediating to center himself, preparing spells, and healing himself completely. His neck was now only shades of pink and there were no longer any open wounds. I ate several pounds of meat, forcing Caleb to eat something as I wrote a short email to Six and the other cats explaining what I was doing, where and why before setting it up to automatically send if I didn’t stop it by Friday morning. I wasn’t going to just drop off the face of the planet without others knowing in case shit went south so that revenge could be theirs.
Once that was done, I started cleaning the guns, sharpening the knives, and dressing in my full riding gear that worked well in combat. It could be taken off swiftly for the shift, although one of these days, I had to see if someone could enchant or make clothing that didn’t rip into shreds each time I turned. For now, this would do. We would be able to manage. Once finished, we went out to my bike to roam the warehouse district as the sun settled in the distance. Caleb helped me hide the bike between a pair of the older buildings, using only a tinge of magic to keep it blending into the landscape. He finished the sigil on the bike as I finished stripping off the clothing. I began to stretch, shifting into my long jaguar form. Once finished, I rubbed my scent over his hip. He stroked his hand over my gigantic head before he began to use his fingers and words to cast a spell over my body, helping me blend more and allowing me to communicate with him. It couldn’t be words but pictures as even in my cat form I could share images and scents. I jumped through several buildings’ open windows, keeping to the high places.
I could prowl over the edges of ceilings, tops of buildings, avoiding humans until I reached where the bright scents of magics and spell poured from a set of four massive warehouses. The buzz made it so I could not make it on top of the building with ease, several spell sigils I recognized were flaring across the top of the buildings. If I landed on the building, a trigger would set off, warning the mages of my presence. I danced to a closer building, deep in the cover of the shadows until the wind kicked up, and Caleb landed next to me. He couldn’t fly as much as glide over the winds when pushed for short distances. He pointed out sigils on the windows and doors, following my gaze to the rooftop and grounds. They were well warded against all comers, especially against other mages. I tilted my head, looking at the weaker parts of the warehouse, where I would be able to rip through if Caleb couldn’t weaken the barriers for me to slip through.
Using a pile of glass broken from a nearby window, he had a spell through it looking at the spell-craft around the buildings. He pointed to a window on one of the smaller of the warehouse buildings, but I couldn’t see the same things he could manage. I leaped over the edge, bouncing over the walls to the window he had pointed out. Bumping against the window, I managed to open it to slip through, slide down against the wall into the organized space. There were shelves and beds together. I saw flickering of mage lights against the walls, the rainbow shades of colors keeping the area appearing peaceful. Several of the beds had young men and women with a handful of children chained to the walls. The chains matched what had been on Caleb, a glowing silver around each neck, with most of them covered in flecks of blood. I padded past them; their dazed eyes didn’t seem to register my existence. Keeping with the wall, I noticed that the shelves lined with herbs, crystals, and powders typical to mage houses. Each section had sigils on the walls and small clusters of bound people in beds. This warehouse appeared to only be holding people zoned out of their minds.
I went past them towards the doors, several enchanted with some leading to blank walls. Mages and their weird magic. Only one of the doors was opened, glowing with a backdrop of another interior warehouse. I trotted through, my fur tingling from the magic and an icy breeze wafted over my pelt. I jumped onto the shelving unit seeing several people awake. A pair of older women were using sand, creating intricate drawings over the flooring, which was glowing slightly brighter in
