Page 2 of Bound
Ruin’s all black stare meets mine, and I give a slight nod.
His jaw blanches even over the distance, but I know he can usher the human force off our new scene without help.
Tanner offers me my case, and I set it on the ground beside the body. I bypass the print powder, gloves, and tubes for a long white device. Taking out the scanner, I use the attached wand to scour the area around the body.
But there is nothing. No green light for a magick user. No signs at all that the fucking kid even had a trace of power in his veins before he kicked it.
I tap the side of the meter on my palm. But the fucking light remains off.
“Problem?” Ruin asks, joining us in the darker section of the alley as the human police finally herd off the civvies.
“Kid is Fae,” I tell him, frowning. “But there is no sign of magick anywhere.”
“And even with the kid being dead, your little toy can pick up on that?”
I raise my eyes to his. “It works off electromagnetic waves.”
He gives me a droll stare. “For us normal people, what the fuck is that?”
T sniggers beside him, I ignore the cat. “Every supernatural emits electromagnetic waves,” I explain. “Shifters carry more body heat, and a vamp’s core temperature is low enough that even that will register. But the Fae emit more waves in general because we all have magick. Even if it’s just glamour.”
“The mixture of heat, light, and gamma waves are what cause our energy to flow and create things from nothing.” I flex my free hand, sparking my flames. “My fire is all three, so it shows up on the electrometer.”
The emerald green glow makes the scanner in my hand light up; a small green bulb brightens on the white device, and it gives a warning beep. Snuffing my fire, I move to the kid’s side.
The scanner goes dim and quiet.
I look at Ruin. “See what I mean?”
“So he has no magick.” Ruin shrugs. “A lot of half-breeds don’t. Could he be mixed?”
My teeth grind and I bend down, searching the kid again. “Maybe,” I say, but that sick twist to my gut just won’t ease.
And it’s never been wrong before.
Somehow the kid’s magick, his energy, is gone.
But who or what could have fucking taken it?
“They fucking scheduled the trial within the week,” Markus Alport says as I drop into the chair across from him. “The Sith has sent a group of emissaries to oversee the hearing, and it will be your job to meet them this evening,” he finishes.
I cannot quite stop my teeth from grinding.
Well, that was short fucking notice.
From my seat across from him, my king’s topaz eyes have darkened in the low light to a turbulent amber. His wavy blond hair is tousled. Unkempt. As is the dark coating of burnished beard along his jaw.
The countdown to the trial has been pressing on all of us. But none so much as the king and Ruin.
When Ruin changed his Consort to a vampire, we all knew there would be fucking consequences. But I would personally do it all over again to keep that fucking look off Ruin’s face. And I know Markus agrees.
“And Ruin?” I ask carefully.
Markus leans back. “He will wait here with Horan and Caine. I would like Tanner with you.”
I nod, slowly. “How many are in the envoy?”
It doesn’t matter. Not really. One is too fucking many.
