Page 34 of Lunar Desires
What was Agent Jake Winter doing here?
He scratched his chin, giving me a sympathetic look.
Was he here to help? If so, yay.
Before I could speak, I got bundled into the back of a blue car, the door slammed shut. A thick partition cut me off from the male driver, every window tinted. Something like the slime of a slug shimmered on the seat.
A cold, slimy sensation slithered in my veins. It sucked the energy from my body, making me slump.
The woman got into the passenger seat, pushing a button on the dashboard.
A speaker crackled above me. “You’re feeling the effects of Suppressant Ooze Variant 843. No magic for you, and you’ll probably puke in a bit.”
I’d heard of this stuff—a substance used to suppress energy and temporarily switch off magic while someone was under its effects. The light of my witch bangle turned amber, flashing in warning of the ooze. My head became fuzzy, stuffed with cotton wool. It leeched my strength, suppressing my energy. Tidal Pull still bubbled on the surface, but it would have to stay bubbling.
For now.
As the car pulled away, I retched, the cotton wool in my head shifting to a sickly dizziness. “Oh…god…” After three more dry retches, I vomited the contents of my stomach into my lap.
Oh, how marvelous.
“Told you,” the witchcop said in a disinterested drawl.
How I would’ve loved for her to go through the windscreen by my hand, the indifference scraping off her face as she slid across the asphalt.
Skin peel, anyone?
I puked again in response to my dark thoughts.
Ugh.
London’smain High Coven HQ building loomed over Mayfair as a frosted-blue glass tower, the top of its cylindrical shape a spear-like point, an orb of blue fire constantly burning. High blue walls surrounded it, witchcops on patrol, the security top notch like every other High Coven building. But only the London one looked like this and stood so tall and courted so much controversy from local conservation campaigners.
So many old buildings had been torn down to make way for this monolith. Kind of like back in Coldharbour with all the new glass structures springing up across the city.
My eyes alternated from the spectacle of the tower to watching the woman in the front seat. She jabbered into her phone while I sat completely slumped in my seat, ready for a nap.
Under different circumstances, I would’ve been chewing on my bottom lip, a total wreck over what awaited me inside the tower. But Drake sat at the forefront of my mind, even putting the Dad stuff in a box for now, my heart aching knowing he might die. Those shots they’d given him wouldn’t be enough.
He needed Isaac’s healing power. Right now.
Oh, God. I was so powerless, so helpless in this back seat.
The vehicle stopped at the main gates of the building. I waited for them to open, but they didn’t.
Huh?
The woman glanced at me, her brow deeply furrowed, her phone still pressed to her ear.
What the hell?
The driver reversed.
“We’re taking you back to Coldharbour,” the woman said, looking deeply unhappy about it.
“Why?” I asked with a raspy voice.
She didn’t answer.
