“You recall that one of those individuals bombed New Hampshire with a meteor and the other can knock down entire towns with his mind?”
“These will block O’Carroll’s connection to magic,” Keese said.
“He had a set of those put on him a few years ago and then had his jaw broken. At that point, he found a way to destroy the bracelets while wearing them. Those couple of years might as well be centuries as far as how much he’s grown. And depleted uranium brings out the bad side of Chris. And I mean really, really bad. Are you sure your orders came from your bosses?”
“Of course,” Mall said.
“Who else?” Keese demanded.
“Oh, I don’t know… maybe from Connie and Mallory? At least those were the names on the emails that you guys received.”
“You hacked our emails?” Mall asked, frowning like I had admitted murder.
“Omega did. Good thing too. If I was silly enough to actually let you meet Chris and Declan and you pulled those stupid toys out, you’d be lucky to be alive. Especially if their women caught wind of it.”
“You are threatening federal agents?” Mall asked.
“Nope. Trying to keep a couple of slow-witted ones alive, that’s all. Here, let me show you,” I said. I pulled two objects from my pocket. “Please examine these and offer me your expert opinion.”
I plunked a Kennedy half dollar coin into Mall’s hand and a Case folding penknife into Keese’s.
The immediate effect was… nothing. Both men just stood, staring at the object in their hand for a full minute. Mall was the first to raise his head. He blinked at me and then looked at the spelled cuffs in his other hand. Then back to me.
“You guys met some ladies, didn’t you?” I asked.
Keese was blinking rapidly, his face going white. Guilt flashed across Mall’s face and he clenched his left fist, the one with the wedding ring on it and the coin in it, and then tucked that hand into his pocket.
“Fellas, you’ve been played… by witches, some of whom are probably waiting somewhere outside this building.”
“I have found twelve individual females spaced around the Tower who seem to be loitering without any purpose,” Omega suddenly said through the speaker.
“You shouldn’t feel bad, or at least guilty, as many witches are masters of seduction magic. You have no protection whatsoever from them. Those spelled objects you are holding were created by the witch you were sent to grab, as protection against magical influence. I’m not an expert, but you each likely have a mark somewhere on your body that keeps the spell going even inside the wards of the Tower.”
Mall almost exploded out of his suit jacket, his right hand unbuttoning his collar before the coat hit the ground. Keese followed his lead, dropping his DU cuffs to start pulling off his own clothes.
“I’ll just step out while you two confirm my suspicions,” I said, moving quickly to the door before I was forced to see anything I didn’t want to see. Neither agent was attractive in my book.
In the hallway, I spoke my thoughts. “Omega, could you patch me through to Katrina?”
A small touchscreen next to the door lit up with the pretty face and dead cold eyes of our resident sociopath. “What do you want, Chapman,” she asked, backing away from the screen. She was wearing a dark gray sweatshirt that said University of Vermont across the chest, and black leggings.
“There’s a circle’s worth of witches outside the Tower who spelled some federal agents in an attempt to put Chris and Declan into custody. They’re probably waiting around on the chance the stupid ploy actually worked. I thought perhaps you might like them?”
“A gift? You’re getting soft, Chapman, or you’re up to something,” she said, her eyes narrowing. The expression I had seen before that, just a flicker really, was rage. Our Katrina was a bundle of anger, wrapped in wrath and sprinkled liberally with fury. Her decades of tortured existence trapped in the body of a twelve year old had been brought to an end by Chris. And her first experiences while appearing as a young adult had been at College Arcane where, for some reason, she developed a fondness for a certain young witch she’d been sent to watch over. To my knowledge, she was only fond of maybe three people. Two of those had just been threatened by the witches.
“Do you not want my gifts?” I asked. “I could send the security guys.”
“Don’t gift with one hand and insult with the other, Lydia,” she said, frowning. She reached into the neckline of her sweatshirt and fished out an amulet on a black cord. Hers was made from the graduation tassel in the green and yellow colors of the school named on her shirt. She had officially been in upstate Vermont for only a couple of semesters, but I knew for a fact that on her own time, she often revisited the campus. Luckily, I hadn’t heard of any deaths there during those visits.
“Would you like Omega to guide you to them?” I asked sweetly.
She frowned again, like I was insulting her, but then she considered. “Maybe he could confirm each target for me after I locate them. It has to be at least a little sporting.”
“Have fun,” I said, touching the screen to end the call. The irony was that both Chris and Declan would object to me siccing Katrina on the evil witches if I was silly enough to tell them, while Tanya and Stacia would think it fitting when I filled them in later. And no Darkkin in the building would give it a second thought.
The door to the meeting room opened and Mall stuck his head out, spotting me instantly. “Ah, we’ve, ah, confirmed what you said.” He pushed the door farther open, showing he was clothed.
“We, ah, each have a, ah, mark on our lower spine,” he said, not quite able to meet my eyes.
“Oh, a witch’s
