Hunt Mates by Mary Hughes

Author:Mary Hughes [Hughes, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 7th Octave Publishing
Published: 2017-11-01T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

Gabriel went to retrieve the fake Wrapphone. Returning to his office, he locked the phone in his desk drawer then sat in his executive chair, his gaze lighting on the sleeping boy.

Without the teenage belligerence or the boy’s worries twisting his face, he looked even younger than sixteen or seventeen. Gabriel sighed.

A vibrating came from his belt. He sighed again. He’d have explained it away as his phone to anyone who noticed, but it was actually one of his talismans, signaling it needed a recharge. He knew which one. The scent-absorber, working overtime to neutralize the scent of his desire for Emma.

The talisman’s low-power-alert had already been vibrating earlier, or he might have tried to keep her here longer on some excuse. Pulling it out from under his sweater vest, he saw it blinking red. Nearly empty.

Wow. Should’ve lasted a whole week, but gone in couple days? He rarely put a power alert on his talismans, but he was glad he took the extra trouble for this one.

Time to make more.

The way he’d reacted to her, time to make a lot more.

Rising, he activated a simulacrum of himself in the chair, then sketched a quick screen spell between his credenza and where the teen slept. If the boy woke, he’d only see Gabriel doing paperwork.

Releasing the hide on his equipment, Gabriel took down a half-dozen talisman blanks.

His hand closed on a bracelet blank.

Permanent hires got a comprehensive benefits package including a free emergency bracelet engraved with allergies, medical conditions, and a toll-free number to call if they were in trouble—plus one added benefit. A touch of magic. If the employee felt him- or herself in immediate danger, Gabriel’s phone would chirp an alert. Thanks to basic human nature, he got an alarm from one employee or another a couple times a month.

Normally he’d wait until the probationary period was up to make the bracelet. But as long as he had his equipment out, he’d create Emma’s.

Ah, crunchy hell, be honest. I’m going to do everything I can to make her permanent.

He wasn’t sure if he meant employment or something more.

As he set up for the neutralizers first, he thought about what Tanner had said. If the boy was to be believed, a man had stepped from a mid-air tunnel.

That sounded suspiciously like a witch.

A witch changed everything. Emma’s shifter nature would protect her from ordinary crooks, but a mage’s battle? He didn’t want her exposed to that.

Conclusion—he’d have to set the next trap alone.

If it was a witch. He set his small cauldron over a tea light, snapped his fingers, and lit the fire. Witches and tech went together like vinegar and paper cuts. The more finicky the tech, the worse the misfires. Seriously, a normal witch could never use something as advanced as the Wrapphone, at least, not reliably.

A mundane with a tunneling talisman? That made more sense technically, but most mundanes didn’t know the secret of magic.

Unless it was a shifter or familiar.

Not Emma.

Grimacing, he plunked the blanks into the cauldron and picked up a lancet.

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