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"No more magic—at all," he said.

  "Absolutely, one hundred percent," said Lucy.

  I nodded so hard in agreement it’s a wonder my head didn't pop off.

  The pilot gave us one more disgusted look and spun on his heel, slamming the cockpit door behind him. I could hear him telling the chief pilot what happened and he reacted about as well as his buddy.

  "Can we get back to the fact that you think I'm magic now?" asked Morgan.

  "I didn't say you're magic, but I think Lucy's spell worked. Your aura has added some interesting little sparks of color.” I scrutinized his energy again. "There's only one way to find out. Morgan, step to the back of the plane."

  Morgan didn't even ask why, he just stood and did as I said.

  "What now?" he asked.

  The cabin was kind of mess. Things had shifted and fallen during our almost-crash. I hunched over poking around until I found something suitable, one of those tiny bottles of booze that are ubiquitous on airplanes.

  In one quick motion, but not at full shifter speed, I threw the bottle at Morgan's head yelling, "Dodge this."

  Morgan didn't have time to think about it. He reacted on instinct and caught the bottle.

  "Hey," said Morgan. "That would've hurt."

  "Whoa," said Wyatt. "How'd you catch that, dude?"

  "What do you mean? He threw it, I caught it."

  "Yeah, but Orson threw it with a bit of oomph behind it," said Lucy. "There's no way you should have been able to see the bottle, let alone catch it."

  Morgan stared at the bottle in his hand. "Throw it again." He tossed the bottle back. I feinted a couple of times and then let it rip. Morgan snatched it out of the air before it hit his face.

  "Are you guys sure he's throwing it, you know, all shifter-like? Because it looks normal to me."

  "Exactly," said Lucy. "It shouldn't look normal. Wyatt, what do you see when Orson throws the bottle?"

  "Just a silver blur in the air," said Wyatt.

  "Throw something else," said Morgan, excited. "Maybe multiple things."

  Elyse and I dug around. She came up with an apple, I found another mini-bottle. We were on a fully stocked Gulf Stream, there was tons of stuff to throw. Elyse counted down from three, I tossed my bottle at two, and she threw her apple on one. Morgan caught them both.

  "Whoo hoo! I'm superhuman!" Morgan did a little touchdown dance.

  Lucy shook her head and tried not to smile. "This doesn't mean you're invincible. You understand that, right? And remember the enhancements aren't permanent, the rune's power will fade over time. Also, Orson and Lucy can throw a whole lot harder than they did." She turned to me. "What do you think, how much did you hold back?

  "I'd say he's at about twenty percent of shifter speed.” I looked at Elyse for confirmation.

  "That sounds about right," she said.

  Morgan didn't care, he was faster than he had been and that's all that mattered.

  "Come on, what else can you guys throw at me?" Morgan said, bobbing and weaving like a boxer.

  "Nothing else," said Lucy. "We're going to clean up this mess, and then relax for the rest of the flight."

  Morgan pouted, but he helped us pick up the debris littering the cabin floor. An hour later the speakers crackled to life and the pilot announced we'd be landing in twenty minutes. He instructed us to secure any loose items and belt ourselves in.

  We landed as the sun was setting. It was beautiful, but we couldn't take time to enjoy it, because we were there on a mission. Two black Range Rovers were waiting for us at the small airfield. There was also a large panel truck that pulled up as we taxied to a stop. A smiling man stepped out of the cab. I don't know a lot about clothes, but even I could tell his suit was expensive.

  He opened his arms wide to us. "My amigos. Welcome to Baja. I am Javier. I have been speaking with your Ms. Piper and she had me add an item to your shopping list. It's moored at the marina." He gestured for us to follow him around to the back of the truck. He rapped on the door and it slid open. Two large, mean-looking guys with machine guns stared down at us.

  Javier shouted some instructions in Spanish and the guys shouldered their weapons and pulled three duffel bags to the open door. Javier unzipped one of the bags with a flourish.

  "It is all here as requested," Javier said with a smile.

  Morgan started checking the bag's contents. A tactical shotgun, two handguns, plus ammo for each, an entire set of tactical assault gear—including night vision goggles—and a box of what looked an awful lot like grenades, and a new assault rifle that made the one he had been carrying look like a toy.

  "Dude," said Wyatt. "You’re like a one-man army."

  "If everything is in order, you can follow us to the marina, yes?" said Javier.

  "The Range Rovers are equipped with sat phones?" Morgan asked.

  "But of course," assured Javier.

  We piled into the Rovers with Elyse, Wyatt and Maddie joining me. Morgan and Lucy went in the other. When we reached the marina, Javier showed us to Piper's last-minute addition—a fifty-foot cabin cruiser.

  "You like, yes?" said Javier.

  "It's very nice," said Lucy.

  Wyatt leaned in close and whispered, "What do we need a boat for?"

  "Now, I must leave you," said Javier. "It was pleasure meeting you and doing business. If you ever need anything else, please call me, I can deliver anywhere in the world, overnight."

  Javier shook the men's hands and gave the ladies kisses on the cheek, climbed back into his panel truck, and was gone.

  "We need to call Piper and find out why she ordered the boat," said Morgan.

  Onboard the mini-yacht we found a pile of even more detailed intel on Marcus' villa. We called Piper, and she picked up immediately.

  "What's this I hear about you guys almost crashing the plane?" she asked.

  "That's a bit of an exaggeration," I said.

  "Really, you weren’t tossing magic around causing the engines to die?"

  "Okay, so it was little more serious than I let on, but everything worked out."

  Morgan chimed in, "I've got super powers now." He was almost bragging.

  "Super what?" said Piper, confused.

  "It doesn't matter," said Lucy. "Why are we standing on a boat?"

  "Check the pictures on the table," Piper said. "Marcus has added some regular security to the front of the house."

  We passed the pictures around. The shots were all high resolution and clearly showed armed men patrolling the road leading to the compound and the front gate.

  "How many?" Morgan asked.

  "Twenty-five total."

  "What does Marcus need foot soldiers for?" Lucy asked. "It makes no sense."

  "I've been trying to find out why they were hired, but haven't had any luck. I had Javier procure the cabin cruiser because with all the extra guns, I figured you would want to change your entry point to the beach."

  Morgan was nodding. "Good call." He pulled a chart over so that we could all see it. Piper had already marked it up with timetables and directions. "This will work, thanks for all the prep."

  "You're welcome. It will take you about an hour to reach the villa by boat. If you leave now and figure in the time spent at the villa, and the hour return time, you could be back to the airport and wheels-up by sunrise."

  "Agreed," said Morgan. "We'll call you when we're headed back."

  "I'll be waiting to hear from you. Be safe and good hunting."

  Piper clicked off. The six of us stood there for a moment, the relaxing sounds of the marina washing over us.

  "Is everybody ready?" said Morgan. "It doesn't get more real than this."

  "Let's go get the bastard," said Lucy.

  "Can I drive the boat?" said Wyatt. "I've always wanted to drive a boat. I mean, I've done the bumper boats before, but that doesn't count."

  Morgan fired up the engines and after he navigated the boat from its slip, he turned the wheel over to a very excited Wyatt.
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br />   Chapter Seventeen

  We anchored offshore from the villa. The moonless night provided additional cover. Morgan had killed the running lights when we were still a few miles away, so unless someone on the beach had a spotlight and started sweeping the ocean we should remain unnoticed. The villa itself was lit up with multiple flood lights, both interior and exterior. With two pairs of shifter eyes and Lucy's enhanced vision, we scanned the property for guards. The grounds looked deserted.

  Morgan, who was looking through a pair of high-powered binoculars, said, "It doesn't make any sense. He's got all those armed men on the front gate, but nobody watching the beach."

  "I think the guys in front are maybe for show," I said. "Lets the locals know that someone they don't want to mess with lives in the house. The true barrier will be the wards he has set."

  Lucy's and Maddie's magic gave them the ability to see the intricacies of defensive wards almost as well as I could. We switched on our sight to see what we could see.

  "Oh wow," said Maddie.

  "Dang," I said. Marcus was very bad man, but the mesh of protective wards that he'd created was still an impressive piece of spell work.

  "I've seen worse," Lucy said, dismissively.

  "Really, where?"

  Lucy waved a hand. "Society HQ makes this look like amateur hour."

  "Yeah, but HQ has a team of mages whose only job is keeping the place warded." I pointed at the impenetrable-looking wall of magic before us. "This was done by one guy, in like a day and a half."

  "How bad is it?" Wyatt asked.

  "The villa is covered by a literal dome of magic," said Maddie. "I can see kinetic, sonic and fire wards, and there’s some stuff I don't even recognize. They are layered together in an almost perfect web of death."

  Morgan gave me a slap on the back. "So what? We've got the big guy here, you can rip through all that stuff, right?" he asked me.

  I surveyed the magic churning before me. I had yet to meet a spell that could touch me, but even I had to have an upper limit of how much magic I could handle at once. Didn't I?

  Hey you, inside my head. Are we going to have problems with this?

  We are Ollphiest.

  That was it, Mr. Crazy-town went silent after that one comment.

  Really, dude? You used to be so much more talkative.

  I realized I hadn't answered Morgan's question and everyone was staring at me.

  "Oh, yeah," I said, trying to sound more sure than I felt. "No problem, I got this."

  Morgan grinned. Elyse, though, gave me a look. I hadn't fooled her one bit. I winked at her and received an arched eyebrow in return. We were about to have another one of those conversations.

  "Orson, can I speak with you in private for a moment?" Elyse asked.

  "Not too much privacy on a boat full of magic-users," I said, trying to keep casual.

  "Maddie," Elyse said, never breaking eye contact with me. "Can you please follow us to the galley and cast your camouflage spell so that we can have a conversation?"

  "What's up?" Wyatt asked.

  "Yes, why the need for secrecy? said Lucy.

  "I need to speak to my boyfriend, in private." Elyse didn't offer any other explanation. She just turned and walked away.

  "Everything's cool," I said. "We'll be right back. Maddie?"

  Maddie and I followed after Elyse. We found her waiting in the boat’s galley. It wasn't a space built for more than two people, so the three of us, two being shifters, was a tight fit.

  "Maddie, if you would please," said Elyse.

  Maddie waved her hands and nodded at us before retreating back outside.

  "Did she do it?" Elyse asked.

  I checked with my sight. "Yes, we're in own private cone of silence."

  Elyse didn't waste time. "You're not sure you can make it through Marcus' dome of death, are you?"

  "First, dome of death, is a super-cool name."

  "Orson."

  "I'm pretty sure I can."

  "Pretty sure? That doesn't bode confidence."

  "Nothing magical has been able to hurt me so far," I reminded her. "It's just, well, the dome of death is pretty imposing-looking, but it's supposed to scare people away, so the design might just be for show."

  "Might be? Orson, you're not invincible. Yes, you have amazing power, but there has to be a limit. What if this is it?"

  "We don't have a choice, Elyse. Marcus is on the other side of those wards. Lucy needs answers—about that night, and about her brother. And on top of that we need answers, like for starters how he's walking around alive when he's supposed to be dead. He's arrogant and thinks he's safe. He's wrong."

  "And what if you’re wrong? What if you get hurt or even . . ."

  She couldn't say the word. Hell, I wouldn't even let myself think the word.

  Elyse pressed herself up against me. "I wasn't just being dramatic when I attacked Piper after she bound herself to you. You are mine, I love you."

  I held her tight. "I love you too. And because I love you, and my Aunt Tina, and your parents, and even that oddball group of people out on deck, I know we have to do this. I'm going to smash through those wards and we’re going to teach Marcus what real power is."

  "And what's that?"

  "Love, family and friendship."

  "Promise you'll keep Maddie close, just in case, okay?"

  "Cross my heart."

  We rejoined our friends.

  "We good?" asked Lucy.

  "Yep," said Elyse. "Let's go kick some blood-mage ass."

  "Hooah!" said Morgan.

  We knew Marcus was expecting us—we did steal his amassed fortune after all. But that didn't mean we were just going to waltz up the beach and knock on his back door. The plan was to cut off access to the main road, while simultaneously breaching the wards. This would hopefully keep him contained to the house and its grounds. Wyatt would blink himself and Morgan to the front gate where, Morgan assured us, he would be able to keep that escape route controlled.

  "How exactly are you going to accomplish that?" Lucy asked Morgan.

  Morgan just smiled and patted his black tactical backpack. "Trust me, the important thing is that Orson has to start shredding the wards at the exact same moment. I figure that amount of mayhem will cause a ton of panic and overreaction."

  "I'll be ready, you just say when," I said.

  Wyatt blinked us all to the beach.

  Lucy kept a hold of Morgan's hand. "Remember, the enhancements don't make you the Incredible Hulk, so don't forget to duck."

  Maddie gave Wyatt a kiss on the cheek. "For luck," she said.

  The kid was grinning from ear to ear when he and Morgan blinked away. I led the rest of the group right up to the edge of the dome of death boundary.

  "This is it, time to suit up," I said.

  Elyse and I dropped our clothes and shifted into beast form. Lucy pulled her daggers, Maddie powered up, and we waited.

  Thirty seconds later Morgan activated the comm spell and whispered a countdown, "Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . do it."

  I sank my claws into the magic. The first ward was a kinetic whammy and I let it crash around me, my fur rippling from the released energy. At the same moment the sky lit up in an orange glow and the ground shook from a massive explosion at the front of the mansion.

  "Whoa," said Maddie.

  I didn't waste a second, I started shredding at the next magic barrier in front of me. Marcus' magic was strong. At first I couldn't move faster than a brisk walk. I triggered spell after spell and while they didn't burn me, flay me, or make my head explode, they successfully battered my aura. For the first time since becoming the Ollphiest I felt fatigue. Marcus' strategy became clear. He knew any one single ward couldn't take me out, but if he threw enough of them at me, it might just exhaust me to the point that I'd be next to useless in a fight.

  And it seemed to be working.

  A wave of refreshing energy enveloped me. I risked a quick glance beh
ind me. Maddie’s face was scrunched up in concentration as she healed me on the run. She poured her restorative magic into me and my exhaustion began to melt away.

  We were about halfway through the magic minefield when, thanks to Maddie, I was able to speed up to a light run. I tore a zigzag pattern toward the villa. Magic energy clung to me in tatters, trying to stop me, but I was Ollphiest, and even more important than that I was part of a team. And with one last loud pop we were through the wards.

  "Well, that wasn't so bad," said Lucy, sarcastically.

  Now that the magic death dome portion of the evening was complete, the bad guys finally showed themselves. A group of five individuals came rushing from around the side of the villa. Every single one of them had a telltale shifter aura.

  "Those are shifters?" said Lucy, confused. "What the hell?"

  The five didn't slow down and they shifted on the fly. We were facing three wolves and two panthers. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I ran toward our adversaries and shifted to human form.

  "I'm the Ollphiest!" I shouted, hoping they would respond the way Piper had.

  No such luck.

  They apparently didn't care that I was the chosen one and tackled me to the ground. Three of them tried to relieve me of my head, but got into each other’s way, their massive claws getting entangled. It was like an episode of the Three Stooges.

  Whoop, whoop, whoop, nuyk, nuyk.

  I didn't wait for them to regroup and organize their efforts. I shifted to beast form and started ripping at throats and faces. Lucy set one of the poor wolf beasties on fire and it went howling toward the ocean. Unfortunately, water has no effect on magic-created fire. The thing was toast, it just didn't know it yet.

  Elyse leaped, roaring into the fight, knocking two of the shifters off the Orson dog-pile. I was able to regain my feet. The lone shifter Elyse left for me snapped his jaws at me, hissing.

  Ooh, scary.

  I was about to pounce on him, tear his arms off and beat him to death with them when a horrible keening caught our attention. We both turned and watched as Elyse, who already had one shifter's head impaled on the claws of her right hand, used the talons on her feet to stomp the second shifter into the sand. He was the one emitting the terrible sound. Elyse then did a twist-flick thing with her powerful legs, effectively disemboweling the shifter she was standing on.